In particular SK, now the second-largest business group, and Hanwha, ranked seventh, are each expanding through investment and mergers and acquisitions. A recent bid to buy the former Daewoo shipbuilding business, if finalised, will turn Hanwha into South Korea’s leading defence contractor and the world’s third-largest shipbuilder.
President Yoon Suk-yeol is strongly pro-business; unlike his predecessors, he will not press the chaebol to reform.
Samsung’s supremacy is unchallenged, but its de facto boss’s legal travails will remain a problem -- and a warning of downside risks.
In high-tech industries, notably semiconductors, pressure from Washington to decouple from China will grow.
Strategic investment in the United States will help mitigate or blunt US pressure.
