• Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • PODCAST
    • Apa Kabar Indonesia
    • Atlanta Burmese Voice
    • SungKhom Lao
    • Tam Su Voi
    • Usapang Pinoy
    • GAT Insight
    • Georgia Korean Podcast
ABOUT
Advertise in GAT
Contact us
Friday, January 27, 2023
Georgia Asian Times
International Insurance of Georgia
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • PODCAST
    • Apa Kabar Indonesia
    • Atlanta Burmese Voice
    • SungKhom Lao
    • Tam Su Voi
    • Usapang Pinoy
    • GAT Insight
    • Georgia Korean Podcast
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • PODCAST
    • Apa Kabar Indonesia
    • Atlanta Burmese Voice
    • SungKhom Lao
    • Tam Su Voi
    • Usapang Pinoy
    • GAT Insight
    • Georgia Korean Podcast
No Result
View All Result
Georgia Asian Times
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • PODCAST
Home Business

Empty shipyard and suicides as ‘Hyundai Town’ grapples with grim future

Georgia Asian Times by Georgia Asian Times
August 13, 2018
in Business, Misc Asia

Giant cranes of Hyundai Heavy Industries are seen in Ulsan, South Korea, May 29, 2018. Picture taken on May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Giant cranes of Hyundai Heavy Industries are seen in Ulsan, South Korea, May 29, 2018. Picture taken on May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

ULSAN, South Korea, August 12, 2018 – When Lee Dong-hee came to Ulsan to work for Hyundai Heavy Industries five years ago, shipyards in the city known as Hyundai Town operated day and night and workers could make triple South Korea’s annual average salary.

But the 52-year-old was laid off in January, joining some 27,000 workers and subcontractors who lost their jobs at Hyundai Heavy  between 2015 and 2017 as ship orders plunged.

To support their family, Lee’s wife took a minimum wage job at a Hyundai Motor supplier. His 20-year-old daughter, who entered a Hyundai Heavy-affiliated university hoping to land a job in Ulsan, is now looking for work elsewhere.

The Lee family’s fortunes mirror the decline of Ulsan, which is now reeling from Chinese competition, rising labor costs and its over-reliance on Hyundai – one of the giant, family-run conglomerates or chaebol that dominate South Korea.

AD: High Museum of Atlanta

Generations of Hyundai workers like Lee powered South Korea’s transformation from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War to an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse, making the southeastern port of Ulsan the country’s richest city by 2007.

But some experts say the chaebols have now become complacent and risk averse, failing to keep pace with their overseas competitors.

South Korea’s focus on exports has also made Asia’s fourth-largest economy vulnerable to growing protectionism by major trade partners and other external shocks.

“Hyundai was everything to me. I feel hopeless,” Lee said at his apartment, a high-rise complex popular with Hyundai Motor workers 10 km (6 miles) from the automaker’s factory.

With young people fleeing in search of jobs, Ulsan is now the fastest-aging city in the country, according to Statistics Korea. The city’s population of 1.1 million has more than quadrupled since 1970, but fell for the first time in 2016 even as population grew in the rest of the country.

ONCE A PROSPEROUS COMPANY TOWN

In many ways, the challenges facing Ulsan mirror those faced in the American Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s, when the once prosperous industrial heartland was hit by massive job and population losses.

Some experts and industry executive warn Ulsan – home to the world’s biggest shipbuilder and largest carmaking complex – might be South Korea’s ‘Rust Belt’ in the making.

“It could be worse here, since it’s all about Hyundai and its suppliers,” said Mo Jong-ryn, a professor of international political economics at Yonsei University in Seoul. “There is no alternative.”

Legendary businessman Chung Ju-yung founded Hyundai Motor in Ulsan in 1967 and Hyundai Heavy six years later, turning the small fishing village known for whale hunting into a giant company town.

For decades, job seekers flocked to the city, drawn by high wages, company-subsidized housing and generous benefits.

Hyundai’s dominance is still keenly felt. Workers wearing gray Hyundai uniforms drive Hyundai cars, shop at Hyundai department stores, live in Hyundai apartments and go to Hyundai hospitals for medical service. Their children go to Hyundai schools and universities.

In the wake of the downturn, Hyundai Heavy has been selling assets such an employees’ dormitory, and a large foreign community complex it used for clients such as BP and Exxon Mobil and their families, officials say. The foreigners’ complex featured townhouses, a golf course, a swimming pool and school.

A spokesman said Hyundai Heavy was doing its utmost to “normalize our company”, working with labor unions to address a lack of work and an idled workforce.

Ripples from Hyundai’s struggles spread throughout Ulsan.

Eom Soon-ui runs a small noodle place in a traditional market blocks away from Hyundai Heavy’s headquarters. One recent workday, the market was mostly empty, with about a dozen restaurants as well as uniform shops catering to shipyard workers closed.

“Hyundai makes or breaks for merchants like us. They’re doing poorly, so I’m struggling to make ends meet,” she said.

Ulsan accounted for 12 percent of South Korea’s exports last year, the lowest since 2000 and down from its peak of 19 percent in 2008, according to customs data.

The city also has seen a rising number of suicides and now has the highest suicide rate in the country for those aged between 25 and 29, according to Statistics Korea.

Ulsan University Hospital, run by Hyundai Heavy, recorded 182 suicide attempts in the first half of this year, compared to about 150 a year earlier, a hospital official said.

Taxi drivers have been told by police not to drop people off on Ulsan’s newly built bridge after three people killed themselves there in just one month.

“People believed that if they work hard, they will be better off, and if their children study hard, they will be better off,” said Park Sang-hoon, an official at an Ulsan suicide prevention center. “Confronting a different reality now, it seems that many of them are getting to a point of hopelessness, and some are even making extreme choices.”

Previous Post

No one can ‘obliterate’ Taiwan’s existence, president says on departure for U.S.

Next Post

“Crazy Rich Asians” – an all Asian cast in a major Hollywood film

Georgia Asian Times

Georgia Asian Times

Related Posts

Soaring egg prices prompt demands for price-gouging probe
Business

Soaring egg prices prompt demands for price-gouging probe

January 25, 2023
Business

Amazon launches a subscription prescription drug service

January 25, 2023
Google axes 12,000 jobs, layoffs spread across tech sector
Business

Google axes 12,000 jobs, layoffs spread across tech sector

January 20, 2023
Job cuts in tech sector spread, Microsoft lays off 10,000
Business

Job cuts in tech sector spread, Microsoft lays off 10,000

January 19, 2023
New Zealand’s Ardern, an icon to many, to step down
Misc Asia

New Zealand’s Ardern, an icon to many, to step down

January 19, 2023
Kemp: Georgia budget spending meant to keep economy growing
Business

Kemp: Georgia budget spending meant to keep economy growing

January 18, 2023
Next Post

"Crazy Rich Asians" - an all Asian cast in a major Hollywood film

Signup Free E-Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Jan 28
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Decatur Lunar New Year Festival

Jan 28
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Chinese New Year Celebration-Chamblee

Feb 18
6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Spring Festival 2023

View Calendar
Logo

 

CONTACT US

Follow Us

MOST INFLUENTIAL

GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans Gala celebrates Asian voice

GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans Gala celebrates Asian voice

July 18, 2022

Video highlights of GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia

July 17, 2022

2022 GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia-Awards Gala

July 17, 2022

LINKS OF INTEREST

ATL Asian Film Festival

GAT on Facebook

Lunar New Year of Rabbit - GAT Special Section
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise in GAT
  • ABOUT

© 2023 Georgia Asian Times - Empowered by 8SOL. Managed by Arckopolis.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • PODCAST
    • Apa Kabar Indonesia
    • Atlanta Burmese Voice
    • SungKhom Lao
    • Tam Su Voi
    • Usapang Pinoy
    • GAT Insight
    • Georgia Korean Podcast

© 2023 Georgia Asian Times - Empowered by 8SOL. Managed by Arckopolis.

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Google
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest
articles straight to your inbox!

    Are you sure want to unlock this post?
    Unlock left : 0
    Are you sure want to cancel subscription?