The Busan-Ulsan Metropolitan Area, centered on the harbor cities of

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

and

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

, is the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

's second-largest metropolitan area in terms of population and is the country's second-most developed region as well. It is also an

industrial region {{Unreferenced, date=October 2010 An industrial region or industrial area is a geographical region with extremely dense industry. It is usually heavily urbanized. Brazil * ABCD Region, sometimes called ABC (ABC paulista or Região do Grande AB ...

for shipbuilding, international trade, and heavy industries, such as car making and chemical production.

Industries

The Southeastern Maritime Industrial Region is one of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

's chief industrial centers. Only the Capital Metropolitan Area, located around

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, is more advanced. This region began to grow as an international centre for commerce and industrial power in the late 1970s, during which the South Korean government began to introduce national development plans to spur South Korean industry. The results were shocking: within a decade, small fishing wharves like

and

grew into densely populated cities with over two million people each. Meanwhile, industries like car manufacturing and shipbuilding, never heard of before in South Korea, progressed ahead with ferocious speed. Today, the Southeastern Maritime Industrial Region is made up of several industrial cities, all with a special local industry. Ulsan, Geoje, and Busan, all major international ports, especially the latter, which is the world's third-largest trading harbor in terms of total cargo volume, specialize in car manufacturing and shipbuilding. For instance, in 1999, Korean shipbuilding companies based here, such as

Hyundai Heavy Industries HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division ...

Daewoo Daewoo ( ; ; ; ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "''dae''" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerate) and aut ...

Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, and

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

Heavy Industries overtook

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese shipbuilding firms as the world's best

. Especially in Ulsan, where heavy industries make up most of the city's revenue, Hyundai Auto and other automobile companies are slowly taking leading positions in the global society. In other cities, such as

Pohang Pohang (; ), formerly spelled Po-Hang, is the largest city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, with a List of cities in South Korea, population of 499,363 as of 2022, bordering the Sea of Japan, East Sea to the east, Yeongcheon to the w ...

and

Changwon Changwon (; ) is the capital and largest city of South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea (with a population of 1,025,702 ), and the 11th largest city of the South Korea, country. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south, and the ...

, steel and oil refining is particularly advanced. Pohang itself is the seat of

POSCO POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Company) is a South Korean steel manufacturer headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. It had an output of of crude steel in 2015, making it the List of steel producers, world's sixth-largest steelmaker by thi ...

, the Korean steel giant, while Changwon is the capital of

South Gyeongsang South Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World Heri ...

Province. Finally, in Gimhae and Gyeongju, tourism is very popular, as Gyeongju was the ancient capital of the

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

Kingdom, while Gimhae was the capital of the Gaya Kingdom.

References

{{coord missing, South Korea Geography of South Korea Metropolitan areas of South Korea Geography of Busan Geography of Ulsan Geography of South Gyeongsang Province

Industries

See also

References