President Kang Suk-joong of the Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET) speaks at the 2015 Ceramic Day ceremony at the SETEC in Seoul on Nov. 25.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) plans to establish the so-called Ceramic 2025 Strategy, calling for the nurturing of “top 10” global premier products and “top 20” global leaders specializing in advanced ceramic products with the goal of making Korea one of the top four global ceramic powerhouses. 

The ministry celebrated the inaugural 2015 Ceramic Day ceremony and held the Korea Ceramic Shared Growth Forum at the SETEC in southeastern Seoul on Dec. 25. 

The government’s marking of the first Ceramic Day event is designed to make the importance of the ceramic industry known to people and promote the development of the industry, which emerges as one of the advanced materials industries. 

The current size of the global ceramic market is estimated at some $413.7 billion (about 76.9 trillion won). The government projects that the global ceramic industry will stand at $778.5 billion (241.7 trillion won) by 2025. 

The Ceramic 2025 Strategy the ministry plans to work out by next January calls for achieving the target of attaining a 30 percent share in the global ceramic market by 2025. 

Director Kim Yong-rae of the Electronics Parts and Materials Division at the MOTIE said, “We’ll continue to work out ways of providing such support as the development of original ceramic materials technologies and technology commercialization, the establishment of regional centers with ceramic ecosystems, and human development.” 

Director Kim Yong-rae of the Electronics Parts and Materials Division and KICET President Kang join others in cutting the cake at the at the 2015 Ceramic Day ceremony.

Construction of Convergence Bio Ceramic Materials Center

MOTIE and the Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET) said a project to build a convergence bio ceramic materials center was launched on Nov. 30. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2019 at a cost of 206 billion won. 

The center will have a chemical analysis lab, a materials synthesis lab, a process diagnosis room, a process diagnosis lab, a tissue regeneration process development lab, and other R&D labs. 

It will be outfitted with such systems as transmission electron microscopes, mechanic, physical and chemical analysis systems, and film extrusion mouldings. Korean companies will be allowed to access systems from the center. The center will handle all things ranging from advanced development to mass production certification. 

KICET will also launch a separate project to build infrastructure for supporting evaluations of the safety and efficiency of bio ceramics by 2025 at a cost of 11.5 billion won. The project calls for the establishment of systems and equipment to evaluate safety and efficiency in cooperation with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Materials for bone regeneration are subject to evaluations on impacts on human body.

An artist conception shows the planned Convergence Bio Ceramic Materials Center.(Photos: KICET)