What made it evident that it was an extremely urgent situation was the fact that Chairman Jin himself rushed to the headquarters to convene a meeting.
In attendance were the presidents and executives of Sunyang Electronics and Sunyang Industries, including Lee Hak-jae, as well as the Osaka branch manager who had taken the first flight to the conference room.
As the door to the conference room creaked open and Chairman Jin appeared, everyone stood up in surprise, but Chairman Jin gestured for them to sit.
"Just sit down. Do you have any sense of decorum left?"
Once Chairman Jin took his seat at the head of the table, the Osaka branch manager began to speak.
"There was a major fire. Due to an explosion at the Suji Plant in Ehime, production is impossible."
"The local investigation team has already left on the first flight today. The Ministry of Aerial Resources will also depart tomorrow."
The report from the president of Sunyang Electronics followed.
"Currently, the inventory we have is only enough for four months. If we can't resume production in four months..."
"Normal operation of the Ehime Plant won't be possible until next year." The Osaka branch manager said, eyeing Chairman Jin's expression.
"Sumitomo announced that they are urgently switching the product lines of two of their own factories. It seems that the supply issue will be resolved."
"Seems? Will be resolved?"
Veins on Chairman Jin's forehead popped as he responded.
"You're just making guesses like the guy next door? What the hell are you doing!"
The Osaka branch manager quickly lowered his head.
For now, it's all just speculation. He didn't have the confidence to speak confidently and then bear the responsibility if it turned out to be wrong.
This year's sales target is 10 trillion won, operating profit is 1.5 trillion won, and we're the world's top memory semiconductor manufacturer.
The only person who can shoulder these daunting numbers is Chairman Jin.
"Under no circumstances should the factories stop! Hey, Son Hoon-jae!"
"Yes, Chairman."
"Secure supplies from the United States."
Son Hoon-jae, the president of Sunyang Industries, had to say the difficult words while sweating.
"Dow Chemical in the United States has already signed an exclusive contract with Intel. It's impossible to secure supplies."
"I've heard that domestic companies also produce epoxy packaging. If we can secure all their supplies, can't we prevent the production line from stopping?" Lee Hak-jae, the head of the Suji Plant, asked the president of Sunyang Electronics, but he received only a negative response.
"Domestic products are only suitable for 1 megabit or less. They can't keep up in terms of quality for our flagship product, which is 4 megabits."
They all repeated that it wouldn't work and it was difficult, but Chairman Jin didn't explode in anger. He knew that relentlessly pressing the issue wouldn't yield any solutions, as epoxy resin was a market monopolized by Sumitomo.
"Sumitomo is one of the three major conglomerates in Japan, surviving even after the conglomerate dismantling. Although its external recognition is relatively low, it has many unexpected businesses.
Chemicals are its main focus, but it has also ventured into finance, including electricity, general trading, and insurance. Additionally, it's so massive that it controls Asahi Group, known for newspapers and beer, as a subsidiary.
Japan, despite starting to shake due to the collapse of the bubble economy, is incomparable to the Japanese economy of the 90s.
The total annual sales of Korea's aviation, shipbuilding, electronics, and automotive industries are just equivalent to Mitsubishi's annual sales.
Epoxy resin is a material that surrounds chips during semiconductor assembly, and it accounts for less than 1% of the total raw material cost of semiconductors. However, the problem is that it's an indispensable material.
In the global epoxy resin market, Sumitomo Chemical's market share is only about 1%, but it dominates 60% of the high-end epoxy resin used in semiconductors.
Furthermore, domestic semiconductor production facilities have a whopping 95% dependency on Sumitomo Chemical.
The Korean semiconductor industry, with trillions of won at stake, is being held back by Sumitomo, which accounts for only about 200 billion won.
"In the end, we'll survive only if Sumitomo quickly changes its production line. We're just gathering two hands..."
They made a fuss louder than a pancake house on fire, but Chairman Jin and the core executives of Sunyang had nothing else to do except wait for Sumitomo's countermeasures.
As soon as I read the newspaper article, memories I had completely forgotten about began to resurface.
During the training I received after joining the Sunyang Group, the curriculum included the history of Sunyang Electronics.
The mobile phone I'm holding right now, model name SY-700.
It was Sunyang Electronics' second mobile phone and the first one that weighed less than 100 grams, making it portable. It was released in 1993. The explosion accident at Sumitomo Chemical mentioned briefly when explaining that this mobile phone was released.
It might not be a big deal, but it kept bothering me.
It was all because of the word "monopoly."
Could it be that even the government is concerned about the vulnerability of the South Korean semiconductor industry, which is overly reliant on overseas suppliers of semiconductor equipment and key materials?
The most tempting word for people in business, monopoly.
Moreover, it's a monopoly with enough power to shake the rice of the electronics industry, semiconductors. If I could only grasp the power of this monopoly in my hands, I could exert significant influence on Sunyang Electronics' future...
The target is too big.
Isn't it the enormous Sumitomo Group, which is beyond comparison with Sunyang?"
"I do have some money, but there doesn't seem to be any way to use that money effectively. However, for some reason, I couldn't let go of my lingering regrets.
For almost a month, I had been closely following newspaper articles and broadcasts to monitor the situation, when a shocking incident occurred that was almost incomparable to the epoxy factory explosion accident.
This time, it happened right here in South Korea, not far away in a foreign country, and it occurred at the Blue House, no less.
On the evening of August 12th at 7 p.m., all TV broadcasts began live coverage of the President's emergency address, suspending regular programming.