Korea has put another 6.0 square kilometres of Saemangeum inside a comprehensive bonded area, and the release names Hyundai's 9 trillion won investment plan as the reason
Six square kilometres of reclaimed land changed customs status on Tuesday.
The Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency and the Korea Customs Service designated zones 3, 7 and 8 of the Saemangeum national industrial complex as a comprehensive bonded area on 4 August. The release puts the newly designated ground at 6.0 square kilometres, or 1.81 million pyeong. Zones 1, 2, 5 and 6 were already inside the boundary, and the two agencies give the combined operating total as 14.1 square kilometres, or 4.26 million pyeong.
The document defines the term it is using. A comprehensive bonded area, by its own footnote, is an area the customs commissioner designates in which foreign goods may be stored, manufactured, processed or built while duties and other taxes are held in suspense.
The reason is named in the release
Hyundai Motor Group announced a Saemangeum investment plan on 27 February worth about 9 trillion won. The release lists an AI data centre, a robot manufacturing plant and a water electrolysis plant, and a footnote adds robots, artificial intelligence, hydrogen energy, solar power and what the document calls an AI hydrogen city. The stated purpose of Tuesday's designation is to let that plan proceed without interruption and to support the early construction of a national advanced industry cluster.
The sequence is in the document too. The two agency heads met on 24 June to discuss bringing the designation forward. Saemangeum asked the customs service to expand the area on 15 July. Approval came on 4 August, three weeks later.
What an occupant gets
During construction, the release says machinery and equipment brought in for the plants carry suspended duties and are exempt from value added tax. Once a fabrication plant is complete, foreign raw materials can be manufactured, processed and shipped out with duties still held in suspense.
Two procedural costs come off as well. Businesses operating inside the area are exempted from the renewal cycle of five to ten years that applies to their operating licence, and from the fee that goes with it. Bonded transport formalities between occupants of the zone are dropped, which the release describes as making internal movement and processing easier.
Both agency heads are quoted. The Saemangeum administrator presents the expansion as an example of getting companies the support they asked for at the time they asked for it, and the customs commissioner presents it as a preemptive step so that advanced manufacturers can use Saemangeum as a base for export. The two bodies say they expect the designation to draw further investment from suppliers and from other firms, and that they will keep working with the provincial government and the city of Gunsan on customs clearance and logistics.
Nothing in the release puts a number on the duty deferred.
