Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry analyzes 68 Busan firms among Korea's top 2,000 by sales; manufacturing accounts for 96.5% of total R&D; top 10 firms drive 83.5% of spending

The Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry [Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry]
The Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry [Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry]

Research and development spending by Busan's anchor companies rose to its highest level in five years in 2024, even as the region continues to grapple with a shortage of high-value advanced industries and the absence of large conglomerates.

The Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday released an analysis of R&D expenditure by 68 Busan-based firms ranked among the nation's top 2,000 companies by sales in 2024, drawing on data from the Financial Supervisory Service's DART system and Korea Ratings Data.

The 68 companies spent a combined 384.2 billion won ($250 million) on R&D, up 8.5 percent from 354.2 billion won in 2023. By sector, manufacturing dominated, accounting for 96.5 percent of total R&D spending — led by automotive and auto parts (43.0 percent), footwear products (31.6 percent), and chemicals and rubber (13.9 percent). Non-manufacturing sectors made up just 3.5 percent.

Spending was heavily concentrated among a handful of firms. The top three companies alone accounted for 56.1 percent of total R&D expenditure: Renault Korea led with 86.8 billion won (22.6 percent), followed by Changsin INC with 84.3 billion won (21.9 percent) and Sungwoo Hitech with 44.5 billion won (11.6 percent). The top 10 firms together accounted for 83.5 percent of combined R&D spending across all 68 companies analyzed.

The pattern mirrors a national trend. Among the country's top 2,000 companies by sales in 2024, the top 10 firms in the Greater Seoul area — including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Hyundai Motor Co. — accounted for 73.7 percent of total national R&D spending, indicating that a small number of anchor companies drive R&D activity both nationally and regionally.

The average R&D-to-sales ratio for the 68 Busan firms stood at 0.7 percent, slightly below the 0.9 percent average for the nation's top 2,000 companies. However, the chamber noted that Busan has no companies with annual sales exceeding 10 trillion won, and when that is taken into account, the share of Busan firms exceeding the 0.9 percent national average was actually higher than the national figure across all other sales brackets. This suggests that, despite structural constraints including a lack of large conglomerates and high-value advanced industries, Busan's anchor companies are building a solid R&D foundation in the region.

"To spread R&D capabilities — currently concentrated in a few anchor companies and the manufacturing sector — across partner firms and the broader regional industrial ecosystem, the government and local authorities must move quickly to support business restructuring and industrial upgrading through expanded technology investment support, including commercialization assistance, technology demonstration and certification, and export linkages," a researcher at the Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.


kaf2002@heraldcorp.com