Hanjayeon, a forum for discussion on the statistical classification system of the future automobile parts industry
Bank of Korea, Korea Robotics Institute, and Korea Robot Promotion Agency suggest improvement needs and development plans

Although our country's auto parts industry is a key industry, accounting for 19.3 billion dollars and 3.7% of total exports from January to October 2023, experts say that the industrial classification system does not properly reflect recent technological changes in the auto industry, such as electrification and intelligence, and therefore, improvement is urgent.

The Korea Automobile Research Institute (KARI) held the 'Future Automobile Statistics Development Direction Forum' at the Yeoksam Event Hall of the POSCO Tower in Seoul on the 5th, and explored the current status of the future automobile statistics classification system, areas for improvement, and future development directions.

This forum, hosted by Hanjaeyeon and sponsored by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, is an event to redefine the scope and statistical classification system of the automobile parts industry in accordance with the transition to future vehicles and to promote the formation of a consensus with automobile industry officials and experts.

Na Seung-sik, the president of Hanjayeon, said, “As the future mobility paradigm changes and the boundaries of the parts industry continue to expand, it is essential to improve the existing automobile parts industry statistical classification system.” He added, “We will take the lead in improving automobile industry statistics based on systematic statistical classification so that the industry and the government can understand various changes surrounding the automobile industry and make accurate and effective decisions.”

In her presentation on “Industrial Input-Output Tables and Product Classification,” Kim Da-ae, a director at the Bank of Korea, introduced the basic structure of the Bank of Korea’s industrial input-output table, which is used for analyzing Korea’s economic structure, and the product classifications used when creating the industrial input-output table. She also mentioned issues related to automobile product classification.

Director Kim pointed out issues that need to be resolved, such as the absence of HSK corresponding to multipurpose passenger vehicles (RVs) and passenger car KD (local assembly) sets, as well as the overlapping of fire trucks under ‘manufacturing of freight cars and special-purpose vehicles’ and ‘manufacturing of bodies and special-purpose vehicles’ in relation to automobile product classification.

Director Lee Ho-han of the Korea Automobile Parts Industry Association said in his announcement of the “Improvement Plan for the Statistical System of the Automobile Parts Industry” that “Recently, in line with the paradigm shift to future cars, the automobile industry has been frequently merging and converging with other industries, and the boundaries of the industry have been expanding. As a result, there is a problem that the existing classification system and statistics do not reflect the reality of the automobile industry well.” He announced a plan to improve the classification system that matches the reality of the automobile parts industry, apply it to the on-site survey of the parts industry, and improve the classification system for export and import items.

This executive said that as electrification, infotainment, and communication intelligence are driving the automobile industry, companies and fields that cannot be considered traditional automobile-related companies are being incorporated into the automobile industry ecosystem, and that these changes are not being captured within the statistical system, and that it is still difficult to capture parts related to batteries and software that go into automobiles.

Hanjayeon is aware of this reality and is actively contributing to improvement by obtaining actual car parts catalogs and working on them in a bottom-up manner to extract each element.

In addition, compared to major countries such as Europe and the United States, which separately distinguish electric motors and generators for electric vehicles, Korea is not segmented.We have identified significant issues and proposed several improvement measures, such as increasing the number of codes in the MTI (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Product Classification Table) from 65 to 383, and have also worked to reflect technological trends such as autonomous driving and connectivity.

Seo Jun-kyo, senior researcher at the Korea Robot Industry Advancement Institute, said in his presentation on “Robot Industry Statistics and Special Classification Systems,” “New industries such as the robot industry and the automobile industry have limitations in establishing reliable statistics with traditional classification systems due to their characteristics.” He introduced the establishment and revision of a special classification system that fits the reality of the robot industry, an outline of a “Robot Industry Survey” utilizing the special classification system for the robot industry, and emphasized the need to reestablish a classification system that fits the changes in the automobile industry.

The Industrial Special Classification is a separate classification from the Korean Standard Industrial Classification (KSIC) approved by Statistics Korea for major industries contributing to national development, and was established to secure a systematic industrial statistics foundation. The robot industry was first established as a special classification in 2006, and the third revision was made in 2019.

Seo said that the industry's voices are continuously being raised because industries such as delivery and serving robots, excluding manufacturing robots, have not yet been reflected in the revision, and that the revision will be completed within 2024.

He continued, “95% of the entire robot industry in our country is small and medium-sized enterprises, and even among companies that operate in the robot industry, most of them generate more than 50% of their sales from other sources while also engaging in the robot industry, making it difficult to manage statistics.” He emphasized the importance of special classification, saying, “The robot industry has many new products and fields of application, so the special classification table is not perfect,” and mentioned that the accuracy and quality of statistics will be improved in line with the growth of the industry.

Meanwhile, Hanjayeon is using this forum as an opportunity to revise the automobile import and export classification system (HSK).It appears that the government will announce a plan for cooperation with government ministries and automobile industry-related organizations in relation to the Lian, etc., and continue close cooperation.