▲ Workers assembling vehicle parts at the GM plant in Wentsville, Missouri. Wentsville/AP Newsis
Amid the prolonged shortage of semiconductors for vehicles around the world, the government is working with the automobile and semiconductor industries to come up with a solution to the supply and demand uncertainty.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 4th that it has launched the’Future Vehicle-Semiconductor Solidarity Cooperation Council’. Hyundai Motor Company, Samsung Electronics, Mobis, DB HiTek, Telechips, Nextchip, Automobile Industry Association, and Semiconductor Industry Association participated in the meeting.
Automakers still lack competency related to automotive semiconductors in Korea, with most of their core automotive semiconductors relying on foreign countries. Even semiconductor companies do not have a manufacturing process for vehicle semiconductors.
Core automotive semiconductors take many years only for process development, facility expansion, and actual vehicle testing. In addition, international standard certification is required, and high reliability and safety must be secured even in severe temperature and shock conditions.
Accordingly, the government decided to seek measures related to instability in the supply and demand of semiconductors for vehicles in the short term through the consultative body, and discuss mid- to long-term cooperation plans to preoccupy the future vehicle and semiconductor markets.
Since the 17th of last month, the government has been supporting the simplification of the import process for automotive semiconductor parts to prevent disruption to automobile production through short-term measures, and urgently supports the performance evaluation of automotive semiconductors. In the mid- to long-term, in order to increase the competitiveness of the domestic automotive semiconductor supply chain, the company plans to strengthen support for technology development and performance certification, and establish infrastructure.
Gyeo-eong Kang, head of the industrial policy department of the Ministry of Industry, said, “The unstable supply and demand of semiconductors for global vehicles is due to the inconsistency of supply and demand for semiconductors around the world. said.
The government plans to review the opinions from the council on that day, prepare concrete measures, and announce them after consultation with related ministries.