Korea: Changing market scenes

The market for connector solutions in Korea is changing. The cost of buying raw materials is continuously rising, resulting in an increase of Chinese component imports. High-speed connectors and multimedia I/O connectors maintain their popularity because they can be customized for 3G and HSDPA phones. Furthermore, the demand for higher memory capacity in mobile handsets is driving the expansion of smaller external memory connector market, such as T-Flash, MiniSDs and RS-MMCs.



“Connector design has undergone a rapid change. It is necessary to watch out for future revisions to keep up with changes in connector technology,” says Eui Wha Jeong, executive director of Molex Korea. To meet handset manufacturers’ demands for cost reduction and specification enhancement, Molex Korea is developing shutter-integrated I/O connectors that simplify handset assembly process and reduce component count.



“Although several Korean companies are developing nextgeneration value-added products, they still lag behind technologically compared to global players,” says Do Sun Choi, technical engineer at Yeongho Electronics. However, despite the disadvantage in R&D ability, local companies are quick to provide customized services to fulfill the needs of handset manufacturers. Mobile handset and LCD applications are fuelling the growth of the connector industry.



Local companies have developed several advanced core connectors for cellphones. Some companies offer 0.4- or 0.5-mm-pitch board-to-board connectors that are designed to connect handset main boards, LCDs and camera modules. A few years ago, these products were imported.



“The local connector industry is still in poor condition,” says Yong Joo Shin, managing director of Korea Connector Industry Association. “The number of connector manufacturers is over 1,000, but only 10 companies have over $1 billion in annual revenues.