IRC Consulting

07/04/2026

The U.S.-South Korea Shipbuilding Alliance and the $350 Billion Investment Framework

The emerging Korea-US shipbuilding cooperation can be viewed as a bridge strategy that leverages allied shipbuilding capacity in the near term while rebuilding the US shipbuilding and maritime industrial base over the longer term. This draws a parallel with the US-Finland icebreaker cooperation formalized in October 2025, in which the United States permitted limited foreign construction on national security grounds to address an urgent capability gap, while simultaneously pursuing the transfer of requisite technology and expertise to the United States for follow-on construction.

You can read the full article here.

Market Insights Articles

01/04/2026

For many foreign companies, Korea is increasingly difficult to interpret. The Korean Won has come under sustained pressure—breaching 1,500 per dollar in mid-March for the first time since the 2009 global financial crisis—amid rising oil prices, renewed Middle East tensions, and growing global trade uncertainty. From the outside, such conditions can suggest that it would be prudent to delay approaching the market.

For serious players, however, the more appropriate response is not to step back, but to engage with greater precision. This distinction is critical, because it leads to fundamentally different approaches in ex*****on.

Korea’s macroeconomic cues are uneven. The economy contracted by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter in the final quarter of 2025, while the Bank of Korea has maintained its base rate at 2.50%, citing continued exchange-rate pressure and geopolitical risk. Yet this is only part of the picture. Korea recorded annual exports of $709.7 billion in 2025, surpassing the $700 billion mark for the first time, while February 2026 exports rose 29% year-on-year to $67.45 billion, driven by sustained strength in semiconductors. Foreign direct investment also reached record levels. Beneath the volatility, commercial activity remains robust.

Market Insights Articles

20/01/2023

Happy Lunar New Year!

Market Insights Articles TitleHappy New Year from all of us at IRC Consulting2023-01-19 22:46WriterJacob Lee ListReplyWrite '; addHtml= addHtml+''; addHtml= addHtml+'Comment Reply'; addHtml= addHtml+''; addHtml= addHtml+''; if(comment_index==idx && comment_action==action){ jQuery(" "...

19/09/2022

Korea enjoys a fantastic delivery infrastructure. Virtually any product or service is available online and delivered to your door at a speed that is unbeatable. This is the home of the haste-based &ls

19/09/2022

https://ircconsultingkorea.com/market-insights/?vid=69

Haste Makes Waste: The Delivery Culture Conundrum

The unfortunate downside to quick delivery is the amount of waste that it generates. Protecting products as they are hauled from storage to transport to front door, bouncing over speedbumps along the way, is a headache for vendors. Korean customers have high expectations and won’t hesitate to return a product that arrives in less than pristine condition.

Korea enjoys a fantastic delivery infrastructure. Virtually any product or service is available online and delivered to your door at a speed that is unbeatable. This is the home of the haste-based &ls

07/09/2022

Chuseok: Happy Thanksgiving!



The harvest is in! The months-long toil of tilling the land, planting seeds, watering, fertilizing, weeding, chasing away the birds and insects and all the while praying for good weather has borne fruit. Summer heat has passed, and the days are bright and sunny and nights cool. It is time to celebrate. With its strong agricultural roots, the Chuseok fall thanksgiving festival is a hallmark holiday for Korea. Though the agricultural population has shrunk to less than 5% of all citizens and most people are separated from the land by one or more generations, Chuseok remains an important milestone in the annual calendar. Furthermore, it is a three-day holiday!

Chuseok: Happy Thanksgiving! The harvest is in! The months-long toil of tilling the land, planting seeds, watering, fertilizing, weeding, chasing away the birds and insects and all the while praying

01/08/2022

PROTOCOLS FOR VISITORS TO KOREA (Aug .01, 2022)

Source: pixabay In Korea, the new variant surge of COVID19 has caused cases to escalate again with a 7-day average of over 70,000 and reaching a daily rate of over 100,000 new cases on the 27th of Ju

21/07/2022

Korean Industry Surges Ahead with Electric Vehicles

Korea looks at Hyundai and Kia as the core strength of its EV industry, however these are not the only essential players. LG Energy Solutions, Samsung SDI and SK on not only produce most of the EV batteries in Korea but are also global powerhouses. In 2021, these three companies marketed 31.4% of all batteries sold in the world, making LG Energy Solutions (with sales representing 20.3% of global sales), Samsung SDI (5.6%) and SK on (4.5%) the main players in this market.

Worldwide Demand for Environmentally-Friendly Vehicles Source: pixabay Governments and global organizations all over the world have begun to set policies to limit CO2 emissions. One focus is on reduc

06/07/2022

Korea’s Growing Metaverse Industry and the Metaverse Expo 2022

In Korea, before the pandemic, the metaverse and related platforms were focused on the gaming industry. Yet there was much more to the Metaverse Expo 2022 than just games. Platforms and technology solutions were displayed for the medical, tourism, arts, and real estate industries, as well as others.

Korea’s Growing Metaverse Industry and the Metaverse Expo 2022 While Korea’s economy is still not fully recovered from the pandemic, the recent Metaverse Expo 2022 which showed from June 1