Yeongju City to build industrial complex for bearings

The southwestern city of Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, has obtained final approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to build a national industrial complex producing cutting-edge bearings.

The complex will draw a total of 300 billion won ($220 million) in investments and will be constructed by the end of 2027, the city said in a statement.

“Among candidate cities for national industrial complexes, Yeongju became the first to get final government approval thanks to citizens' continued interest and support,” Yeongju Mayor Park Nam-seo said. “I will do my best to attract competent companies in the complex.”

Yeongju City has long paid keen attention to the idea of a bearings complex since 2011 when Iljin Group built its bearings plants in the city. The group is a top-tier auto parts supplier with 1.16 trillion won in sales in 2022.

Korean companies depend heavily on bearings produced in Japan. They suffered a heavy blow when Japan barred exports of core machinery parts and materials to Korea in the wake of the Supreme Court’s final ruling ordering Japanese companies to compensate South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.

“Such reliance on Japanese parts undermines Korean companies' sustainability. We need to produce bearings and other core parts on our own. The final approval reflects not only Yeongju’s but also the government’s efforts to secure sustainable parts supply chains,” a city official said.

Yeongju was picked as a candidate for the proposed national industrial complex in August 2018. After five years of due diligence assessment, the government gave the city the green light for the project in August this year.

The complex, covering about 1.18 million square meters in southern Yeongju, is expected to produce 76 billion won in economic value added annually and create as many as 4,700 jobs, contributing to the regional economy.

The outlook for the global bearings market is positive as its value has been growing annually by 5.7 percent in recent years, and is expected to reach 177 trillion won in 2025, according to the city.