South Korean conglomerates have been leaving China in droves because of business uncertainty, policy changes by Chinese authorities, US chip export controls, tougher competition and declining profitability amid its economic slowdown, according to a report by Business Korea, which cited a survey last year by CEO Score, a local business data institute, that said 46 production subsidiaries had been sold on the mainland in the seven years from 2016 when Beijing began its ban on the Korean Cultural Wave.
Lotte Chemical had sold its stake in Lotte Samgang Chemical in 2023 and its share in a JV that sold cement and materials for detergents, while Samsung SDI liquidated battery-pack companies in Wuxi and Changchun in 2022 after regulations were changed and retaliatory action taken in response to Seoul deploying a THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system.
Meanwhile, Korean carmakers were also getting out, with Hyundai selling its no-1 plant in Beijing in 2021, its factory in Chongqing in 2023 and is also looking to sell its plant in Changzhou, it said, adding that Korean petrochemical firms were being squeezed by a price war as China moves toward self-sufficiency.
Read the full report: Business Korea.
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