After a decade-long halt, Korean escalators return and set their sights on the U.S. market

GEOCHANG, South Gyeongsang — Korea went a decade without domestic escalator production. Finally, they're making a comeback.

Cheaper Chinese imports began pushing Korean-made escalators out of the market in the 2000s, and Hyundai Elevator, the last domestic producer, halted production in Korea in 2014. Engineers scattered across the industry and many smaller suppliers disappeared with them.

The loss of domestic production led to safety concerns. Smaller companies imported Chinese escalators for installation, but replacement parts were often difficult to obtain when equipment broke down. A 2013 accident at Yatap Station, in which an escalator suddenly reversed direction and injured 39 people, was traced to a counterfeit Chinese part.

“With Chinese products of uncertain provenance, repairs are often made using parts that look similar,” an industry source said. “But differences in strength or materials can lead to accidents.”

The long-awaited comeback

A decade after domestic production disappeared, Korean-made escalators are making a comeback. K-Escalator, established in Geochang County, South Gyeongsang, in 2024 by Hyundai Elevator Service and several small and medium-sized companies, has begun to show results.

A 21-meter-high (69-foot) escalator stands on the factory grounds like a symbol of the industry’s revival. The product recently received model certification from the Korea Elevator Safety Agency. It gave the company approval to manufacture escalators of up to 21 meters in height.

“It is essentially a certificate saying we can manufacture any product up to 21 meters high in Korea,” K-Escalator CEO Lee Jun-seob said during a visit to the factory on Wednesday.

K-Escalator began making its first deliveries last year and posted revenue of 4.5 billion won ($3.2 million).

Whether the revival can continue, however, remains uncertain. The decade-long gap in production has also left a shortage of skilled workers. At K-Escalator, the youngest engineer is in their 50s, while a new employee in their 20s is only now learning the trade. Had the hiatus lasted much longer, the industry would have risked losing its technical know-how altogether.

Not a big welcome

Many escalators installed at shopping centers and subway stations in the 1990s and 2000s are approaching replacement age, but Korean manufacturers still struggle to compete with cheaper Chinese products in the private market.

K-Escalator has tried to expand orders from public facilities by emphasizing safety. But an economic slowdown has reduced public-sector replacement demand to fewer than 200 units a year, well below the roughly 400 units the company had expected, making its target harder to reach.

The company is now looking to the United States for a breakthrough and has begun seeking the certifications required for North American exports. Chinese manufacturers dominate the global market, but growing tensions between Washington and Beijing have made the U.S. market harder for them to penetrate.

“America’s barriers to entry are an opportunity for us,” Lee said. “In the local escalator market, ‘Made in Korea’ has a real chance to compete.”

Global trade war proves a silver lining for Korea

The disappearance and return of Korean escalator manufacturing reflects a broader structural shift facing Korean industry. Korea’s trade surplus with China reached $55.6 billion in 2018 before shrinking rapidly. The balance swung to an $18 billion deficit in 2023, the first in 31 years, and remained in the red for three consecutive years through 2025.

A return to a surplus is considered likely this year on strong semiconductor exports, but many other major manufacturing industries continue to struggle.

Experts say Korean manufacturers need to target weak points in China’s industrial dominance. The video surveillance market is one example. Chinese companies had long dominated the CCTV industry, but supply-chain reliability became more important as cameras increasingly became connected network devices.

The U.S. government began restricting Chinese-made surveillance equipment in 2019, creating an opening for Korea’s Hanwha Vision, which already had key component technology and a local sales and service network.

According to market researcher Omdia, Hanwha Vision held a 3.9 percent share of the global surveillance equipment market, ranking fifth, but its share in the Americas was twice as high at 7.8 percent, placing it third.

High-value industries also need support

Some Korean manufacturers have also benefited by establishing production bases in the United States as Washington raised regulatory and tariff barriers against China.

When the United States imposed antidumping duties on wind turbine towers amid its push to curb Chinese competition, CS Wind acquired a U.S. factory in 2021 and secured the status of a local manufacturer. Tighter U.S. restrictions on Chinese power equipment have similarly benefited Korean companies such as Hyosung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Electric, both of which operate production facilities in the United States.

Others argue that Korea should use the period of heightened restrictions on Chinese companies in the United States and Europe to accelerate a shift toward higher-value industries.

Korean display makers were once pushed into crisis as inexpensive Chinese liquid crystal displays (LCD) ate into their market share. Samsung Display and LG Display later focused on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, which requires more advanced manufacturing capabilities, and the industry recovered.

The chemical fiber industry followed a similar path. Korean producers lost ground to cheaper Chinese products in the 1990s, but Hyosung concentrated its technology and production capacity on high-performance spandex rather than commodity products and rose to the top of the global market.

“Western countries’ efforts to contain China are creating opportunities for Korea to become an alternative supplier,” said Keun Lee, a distinguished professor at Chung-Ang University’s School of Economics. “Even in industries lost to China, Korea needs to move into high-value segments where it can maintain competitiveness.”

BY NAM YOON-SEO, SUK GYEONG-MIN [kim.hayoon1@joongang.co.kr]