Since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the domestic elevator industry has been booming, with a rapid increase in the number of installations, and as of 2011, it ranks third in the world with a market of 3 trillion won. Considering that the global market is 30 trillion won and the Asian market is 18 trillion won, Korea is indeed an 'elevator powerhouse'. The number of elevators installed in Korea has steadily increased by 20,000 units every year, totaling 471,403 as of the end of December 2012, of which 25,783 escalators were installed.

Currently, a total of 270 companies, including multinational corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises, produce and sell products, and five companies account for more than 80% of the total market. However, the market is shrinking rapidly due to the rapid increase in the share of multinational companies, poor environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, and tightened laws and regulations.

In particular, the domestic elevator industry is currently in a hollowed-out state of 'industrial communization' as multinational companies acquired a large number of domestic elevator companies during the 1997 foreign exchange crisis and then moved their manufacturing facilities to China, where labor costs are cheaper, in order to meet profitability. Industrial communization is defined as "a situation in which manufacturing is relocated to regions and countries with relatively low-cost production bases, leading to a decrease in domestic employment, a decline in technological competitiveness, and a deterioration in the balance of payments in the medium to long term.

In the case of double escalators, there are no factory lines that can produce finished products. A representative of an escalator company analyzed, "This is because, with the opening of the domestic elevator market and the collapse of elevator conglomerates, the government's measures to foster small and medium-sized enterprises have been neglecting technology development, and due to excessive low-cost orders and rising escalator manufacturing and production costs, we have stopped domestic production and are mostly importing low-cost finished products from China."

In particular, domestic elevator SMEs are unable to develop technologies that require long-term investment due to their small size, and they are importing and installing low-cost Chinese-made products in order to compete for low-cost orders through bleeding competition among companies.

However, a bigger problem is that Chinese imports are supplied to the market without going through any quality verification process because they are not obliged to be certified by a domestic certification organization due to the lack of legal quality regulation provisions in the current Korean law. There is also a high concern that the overall level of quality will drop as most of the products fall short of the domestic elevator certification standards. This means that the products coming into Korea from China are of different quality, but are not subject to domestic quality standards and are supplied to the market without any quality restrictions. "Since most of the production bases of major manufacturers entering Korea are located in China, there is a big problem that is caused by the influx of untested products from China in order to reduce costs in the case of safety parts that are subject to mandatory certification in China but not in Korea," said an escalator importer.

Moreover, there is always a possibility of safety accidents as these products do not have manuals on installation procedures, spare parts to replace in case of failure, and proper emergency measures in case of safety accidents, and operators are also likely to be in a difficult situation as the limits of responsibility are not clear, especially in the event of a safety accident caused by poor quality.

"This is the result of the government's neglect of the elevator industry over the past decades without systematic fostering and management," said an industry official. "In China, the government has introduced the globally accepted European EN standard for elevators and production parts installed in the country, requiring them to undergo mandatory quality verification, and the country is growing as it expands its export market to the rest of the world."

As of the end of December 2012, there were 25,783 escalators installed and operating in Korea. Most of them are concentrated in facilities that are used by an unspecified number of people, such as sales and marketing facilities (19,488 units), neighborhood living facilities (1,510 units), business facilities (1,319 units), and cultural gathering facilities (1,305 units). In addition, 64% of all escalators are installed in Seoul (8,821 units), Busan (2,351 units), and Gyeonggi (5,497 units), which are densely populated areas, raising a 'red light' for escalator safety accidents.

In particular, if the import and installation of low-cost Chinese-made products without any technology development continues, Korea is likely to become an 'elevator safety accident country' instead of an 'elevator powerhouse'.

In response, the government has expanded the certification items for escalator parts as a way to reduce escalator safety accidents, including escalator reverse running prevention devices as mandatory safety certification items, and steps and step chains for escalators as voluntary safety certification items, and is scheduled to be implemented on July 26, but the industry is complaining about supply and demand problems for the existing products installed in the market and the cost of renewal every two years, so it is expected that the stable implementation of the system will require considerable pain for the government and industry.

If elevator companies, especially some small and medium-sized enterprises, continue to import low-cost products from China as they are now, the safety of the products that enter the country cannot be guaranteed. And if SMEs do not develop their skills and are only concerned with the immediate profit margin, the import of low-cost Chinese products will continue. It is time to avoid importing low-cost Chinese products and establish a system to introduce quality products by strengthening our own quality.  In particular, the government should designate the elevator industry as a safety industry and lay the foundation to focus and foster the industry.