Korea's remanufacturing industry in comparison with its global status : a case study

The remanufacturing industry refers to industry that remanufactures used products through disassembling, cleaning, testing, repairing, adjusting and reassembling, so that their original function or condition would be maintained. This industry can bring excellent effects environmentally and economically. Especially, the labor intensive nature of remanufacturing provides an opportunity for job creation. The study was conducted to refine the understandings on the current status of the remanufacturing industry in Korea by investigating and analyzing the latest trend of Korea’s remanufacturing industry. The research works are based on literature reviews, on/off line contacts with remanufacturing companies, and field studies. The result showed that the remanufacturing business in Korea is well-established in the field of automobile parts, print cartridges, SCR (selective catalytic reduction)-coated products (modules), and electrical and electronic equipment sectors. The market size of the remanufacturing industry in Korea is approximately 700 million USD based on 2015 which is increased by 16% compared to 2010. However, the number of companies and the scale of employees were found out to decrease by 26 and 33%, respectively. In Korea, the market size of the remanufacturing industry is relatively small compared to other advanced countries; the U.S. remanufacturing market size per capita is 135 USD, the world’s highest while that of Korea is 14 USD, only one-tenth of the U.S.