As the secondary battery and future car industries pass through a growth stall (chasm), an assessment found that, for regions to get ahead in the competition to attract investment, they must lead in building an "ecosystem," not just sites and subsidies. With global supply chains being reorganized, the call was for the government, corporations, and academia to move preemptively to find the missing links in the industrial ecosystem and for corporations to prove business viability with data.
At the "2026 future strategy industry innovation investment forum" hosted by North Gyeongsang Province on Aug. 31 at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman hotel in Seoul, a panel discussion was held on the theme of "restructuring of the secondary battery and future car supply chains and North Gyeongsang's investment opportunities." Graduate School of Business Dean Jeong Yeon-seung of Dankook University (president of the Korean Academic Society of Business Administration) served as moderator, and Senior Investment Officer Park Ju-young of POSCO Technology Investment, PROTEC Ventures CEO Jo Gyeong-hun, Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) Korea Branch Head Choi Ik-hwan, and Yonsei University Materials Science and Engineering Professor Lee Woo-young joined as panelists.
In the panel discussion, experts cited as North Gyeongsang's strengths the ability to connect, on a metropolitan scale, Pohang's cathode and anode materials and recycling and research base, Gyeongju's auto parts and testing and evaluation, and Gumi's automotive electronics and semiconductors. They assessed, however, that hubs are dispersed and that there is a lack of concentrated production for large-scale cell and finished vehicle assembly. The panelists added that building an ecosystem that individual corporations cannot create is precisely the role of local governments.
◇ “No one invests for a single parcel or subsidies”
Dean Jeong said, "North Gyeongsang has considerable competitiveness such as a semiconductor and parts base, yet it has limits in lacking large-scale finished vehicle assembly hubs and specialized talent," and led the discussion on the restructuring of the secondary battery and future car supply chains.
Jeong summarized the premise of the discussion with the remark, "Corporations decide on investments based on the ecosystem, not a single parcel of land or whether there are subsidies." He said a comprehensive ecosystem that bundles power and water, permits, local talent, logistics, and living conditions has become the criterion for corporations' site selection decisions.
PROTEC Ventures CEO Jo Gyeong-hun proposed, "As the secondary battery sector has separated the wheat from the chaff after a stock price overshooting phase, we must find and foster corporations that simultaneously resolve bottlenecks in both the battery and future car industries."
Representative areas include linking existing manufacturing capabilities to future car requirements, such as battery management systems (BMS) and sensors and thermal management, power semiconductors and automotive electronics, manufacturing and inspection equipment, recycling process control, and lightweight and high-strength parts. He also noted that new demand is emerging recently in robotics, which could offer clues to overcoming the chasm.
Jo said, "Investors prefer companies with cash cows and mass-production and process know-how," adding, "At investor relations (IR), rather than saying 'the market is big,' it must be clear which customer problem you will solve and which risks you will remove by when with the investment funds."
Senior Investment Officer Park Ju-young said, "When choosing corporations to invest in, we take a comprehensive view, with quantitative and qualitative data, of whether proof of concept (PoC) is progressing well, whether there are sales, and whether talent is being hired," and added, "Corporations need to prepare an investment data room that standardizes these items separately from the technical brief."
Park added, "Investors prefer corporations that present what customer validation and what production yield and revenue targets will be achieved within 18 to 24 months with the investment funds—for example, corporations that present a project schedule."
◇ “From a region that makes good batteries to the region that uses and diagnoses them most safely”
Yonsei University Professor Lee Woo-young said North Gyeongsang can expand into the "battery safety diagnostics industry." Lee is researching technology that detects trace gases such as hydrogen emitted before thermal runaway to find early signs of anomalies. As with diagnosing human health through breath, it is called "battery breathomics" from the idea of reading the "breath of a battery."
Lee said, "Sensors correspond to the five senses of 'physical AI,'" and noted, "If North Gyeongsang goes beyond being a region that makes many batteries to a region that uses, diagnoses, and recycles batteries most safely, it can cross the secondary battery chasm."
Lee also identified rare-earth permanent magnets and high-performance motors as North Gyeongsang's next-generation strategic industries. Neodymium (NdFeB) permanent magnets determine the power density and efficiency of electric vehicle drive motors and are a key material that governs the size, weight, and torque of joint actuators in humanoid robots, but the concentration of the supply chain in China is very high.
He said, "It is not enough to secure rare-earth minerals; we must establish a domestic supply chain that connects from raw materials to alloys, magnets, motors, inverters, and actuators."
SMM Korea Branch Head Choi Ik-hwan cited "policy" as a leading indicator that will steer supply chains over the next three years. He said that, in addition to policy volatility under a U.S. Trump administration, countries holding key minerals, such as Zimbabwe, are heightening uncertainty.
He emphasized, "Each country's tax systems, production and export policies, quotas, and procurement policies can shake global supply chains," adding, "The next three years are a period to diversify supply chains and enhance value chain safety in response to policy and raw materials risks."
Choi stressed that if North Gyeongsang is to serve as an "execution base" in the supply chain, it must find the empty parts amid technological change—that is, the missing links. He said, "In China's LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery industry, the speed of change in raw materials and process supply chains is accelerating as it moves to the fourth and fifth generations," adding, "In China, academia, politics, and corporations move at the same time; by the time you review sequentially and decide to invest, it is already too late."
Jo proposed, "A structure can be considered as policy in which the public sector shares common equipment and early demonstration risks, the private sector judges economic feasibility and growth potential, and, at the mass-production stage, policy finance, strategic investment, and private investment come in together," adding, "In particular, regional anchor corporations must play the role of the first validation customer for startups' mass-produced products as the 'big elder.'"
Meanwhile, at the forum, POSCO FUTURE M introduced its case of building a secondary battery value chain centered on Pohang and of large-scale investment, and Ilji Tech presented its investment and reinvestment experience in Gyeongju's auto parts hub.
North Gyeongsang Province and the cities of Pohang and Gyeongju explained industrial complexes and available sites, infrastructure such as power and water, and investment incentives, and regional promising corporations such as AN Poly, Ampere Materials, 2DM, Baegeon Hightech, and SPCI gave investment briefings.
This forum was the first main event of the "post-APEC North Gyeongsang investment forum," aimed at linking last year's APEC summit achievements to regional investment, and was attended by about 100 domestic and foreign corporations, investment institutions, and industry experts.