Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) plans to secure new growth engines and expand the scale of the national aerospace industry to 20 trillion won worth annually by 2030.
KAI CEO Kim Jon-won said on Jan. 17, "Last year KAI established a task force to discover 110 new aerospace suppliers and supported them actively through intensive training. Accordingly, the number of partner companies has increased to 330 at the end of 2018 from 220 at the beginning of the year.
KAI focused on the civil aircraft market. It is planning to enter Super Tier 1 in the airframe structure field and push for development of Korea brand aircraft in line with the growth of the civil aircraft market.
KAI continues to expand its share of the private sector in its overall business. KAI recorded a 86 percent share for the defense industry in 2000, but the comparable ratio dropped to 33 percent last year. Meanwhile, the portion for the civilian industry rose from 14 percent to 67 percent during the corresponding period.
In the future, KAI plans to develop core technologies for new aircraft through joint research with its customer companies, and to develop mid-size Korean brand aircraft that are suitable for the Korean Peninsula and Asia.
"Last year, we normalized our business by reorganizing the management system, resuming production of KUH-1 and expanding new orders. We are planning to actively invest in new businesses to become a global company," a KAI official said.
