Analysis: South Korea
Hankook and Haengnam said they have been manufacturing Western style products, yet the Western brand influence and styles have greater impacts. Middle segment imports from China have also captured a big market share. Both the local elites have a combined potential of about US$100 million a year in the domestic market. The Korean players recreate local style products in Western designs to stay in the market by following the experiences of the Japanese global players, particularly, Noritake Co Ltd, who added Western tastes, including blends with the Japanese, in styles and designs and achieved success. To increase manufacturing cost efficiency, Haengnam opened a production plant in Indonesia a quarter century ago. Soon Hankook followed the suit. They entered Indonesia much before Royal Doulton of UK and the Japanese manufacturer, Narumi Corporation. In fact, the two Korean tableware manufacturers’ setting up plants near Jakarta city, the capital of Indonesia, showed the way to Royal Doulton and Narumi.
Sanitaryware advances
In an intense rivalry against foreign suppliers of ceramic sanitarywares, a dozen local ceramic sanitaryware producers, including major ones, Daelim B&Co, IS Dongseo Inus Sanitarywares, Kelim Ceramics Co Ltd-TOTO and American Standard-Lixil Korea, each with over a million piece production capacity per year, are now engaged in a tough fight, mainly against the Chinese products. In 2015, China alone supplied some US$138.792 million worth of sanitarywares to the South Korean market, against South Korea’s total imports of US$143.881 million. Import from the second largest supplier, USA, was only of US$2.148 million. Korea’s leading player, Daelim, is the manufacturer and exporter of “all in one bidet” or innovative ‘Smartlet’ bidet toilet with huge popularity in the domestic market to check imports significantly. It is a Korean answer to Japanese TOTO’s ‘Washlet toilet’ with different features. “Smartlet is designed to fit the human body’s curves perfectly,” claims Daelim. High technology goes hand in hand with the quality of high-end one-piece shower toilet of Daelim. The company said its normal bidet is also designed to fit in almost any ceramic base. Daelim FULEN Smartlet. Photocredit Daelim
COMPANY PROFILES Hankook Chinaware Co Ltd Location: 4 production plants in Cheongju-City, South Korea Founded in 1943 Products: Porcelain and fine bone china hotelwares and household tablewares Markets: Domestic and export markets. Others: South Korea’s largest manufacturer and exporter of ceramic, porcelain and bone china tablewares. Operate a manufacturing plant in Indonesia. Haengnam Chinaware Inc Location: Jeollanam-do, South Korea Founded in the 1940s Products: Tablewares, dinner wares, bowl, coffee cup, mug, tea cup Markets: Domestic and export markets Others: South Korea’s second largest manufacturer and exporter of ceramic, porcelain and bone china tablewares. Operate a production plant in Indonesia. Elix Premium Ware Established in 1998 Factory location: Illo-eup, Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea Products: Ceramic and porcelain tablewares Others: Everyday and customized ceramic and porcelain tablewares for high-end hotels and restaurants and also for domestic and household uses. DAELIM B&Co Co Ltd. Location: 2 plants in Changwon (Gyeongsangnam-do) and Jecheon (Chungbuk), South Korea Products: Water closet, urinal, washbasin, bidet, fabricated bathroom, etc Markets: Domestic and export markets Others: Leading manufacturer and exporter of ceramic vitreous china sanitarywares, and ‘smartlet’ bidet toilet with huge influence in the domestic market. American Standard Korea Inc / LIXIL Korea Inc Location: Danwon-gu, Ansan-shi, Gyunggi-do, South Korea Products: Ceramic sanitarywares and bathroom accessories Markets: Domestic and export markets Others: Originally the US owned American Standard is owned by the Japanese LIXIL Inc. Inus Sanitarywares / IS Dongseo Co Ltd Location: Tangjeong, Asan-si, south of Seoul, South Korea Products: Ceramic sanitarywares Markets: Domestic and export markets Others: Inus sanitaryware production unit is a sister unit of IS Dongseo tile production plant under owning company IS Dongseo Co Ltd. Inus’annual production scale is 11,232 tons of sanitarywares, said the sanitaryware factory, which produces high quality bidet-attached water closets and other sanitarywares, including fashionably designed wash basins. Kelim Ceramics Co Ltd / TOTO Korea Ltd Location: Incheon, near Seoul, South Korea Products: Ceramic sanitarywares, including TOTO sanitarywares Markets: Domestic and export markets Others: In South Korea’s domestic markets and for exports, Kelim Ceramics Co Ltd joined hands with TOTO of Japan in 2010 to produce TOTO sanitarywares. TOTO Korea is the Japanese TOTO owned sanitaryware business operations in South Korea. YMTech Location: Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea Products: Water-saving water closet Markets: Domestic market Others: It has an innovative project to develop quality and environment friendly sanitrywares for common consumers with help of academic researchers. Daelim FULEN Smartlet. Photocredit Daelim
Daelim has two manufacturing plants, in Changwon (Gyeongsangnam-do) and jn Jecheon (Chungbuk), with the combined annual production capacity of 1.2 million pieces of vitreous china ceramic sanitarywares. The half a century old company introduced a bathroom
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