SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - South Korea will revamp public-private research and development in its chemical industry to accelerate a shift toward higher value-added and environmentally friendly production, the government said on Tuesday, aiming to lift the sector’s global standing by 2030.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it launched a chemical industry innovation alliance at a ceremony held at the Lotte Hotel in central Seoul, attended by representatives from local governments, industry, academia and research institutions. The ministry also released its K-Chemistry Next-Generation Technology Innovation Road Map 2030.
The initiative comes as policymakers increasingly view a structural shift toward specialty and advanced materials as essential, alongside ongoing efforts by petrochemical companies to rationalize excess capacity.
A central change is the move to support R&D across the entire value chain – from feedstocks and materials to applications and end-user demand – rather than fragmented, material-specific projects. MOTIE said it will strengthen linkages between chemical suppliers and downstream industries such as semiconductors and next-generation vehicles.
As outlined at a petrochemical industry meeting the previous day, the government will give priority R&D support to companies participating in business restructuring, the ministry added.
The road map is built on three pillars: expanding higher value-added products, accelerating the transition to eco-friendly production, and strengthening responses to global environmental regulations. MOTIE said it will upgrade R&D capabilities and infrastructure to secure core materials and process technologies.
To expand the use of manufacturing AI transformation in the chemical sector, the plan calls for applying artificial intelligence across the full production cycle, from materials design to manufacturing. This includes building autonomous experimentation systems that combine AI with automated equipment to shorten development timelines for new materials, as well as deploying AI in processes such as polymerization, separation and finishing.
Planned projects also include the development of intelligent process-control systems that optimize operating conditions in real time while minimizing energy use, the ministry said.
About 80 domestic experts participated over six months in identifying priority technologies and assessing technological capabilities. After additional reviews by research leaders at petrochemical companies, MOTIE said it compiled 217 practical component technologies.
These technologies will be classified into four categories based on market potential and technological readiness, with tailored support strategies for each. “Short-term intensive” items with large markets and strong technological foundations will receive commercialization-focused R&D support, while “long-term managed” items will be backed by challenge-oriented research.
“Market pioneering” items – smaller but fast-growing markets with weaker technological bases – will receive first-mover R&D and patent analysis support, while “performance diffusion” items involving mature technologies will be supported through infrastructure upgrades such as scale-up and process-efficiency improvements.
The innovation alliance, described by MOTIE as a full life-cycle cooperation model for the chemical industry, will serve as the control tower for implementing the road map. It will pursue nine flagship projects across nine subcommittees, including those focused on semiconductors and future mobility.
Park Dong-il, head of industrial policy at the ministry, said petrochemical companies at a meeting chaired the previous day by Vice Minister Kim Jeong-gwan had “agreed to go all-in on business restructuring.”
He said the road map would serve as a springboard for an industry “in crisis” to transform itself into a higher value-added sector, adding that the government would provide full R&D and policy support to strengthen competitiveness across the chemical industry ecosystem.
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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