Pre-tax Net Profit Reaches 181.9 Trillion Won
Up 31.1 Trillion Won from Previous Year
Last year, thanks to favorable conditions in the semiconductor industry, companies returned to profitability after three years. The amount of net profit was the third largest since statistics began in 2006, and investment in research and development (R&D) also increased by nearly 20% compared to the previous year.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing an unconditional 25% tariff on steel and aluminum products imported into the United States, and announced that tariffs on automobiles and semiconductors are also under consideration. On February 13, 2025, export vehicles and containers are waiting to be loaded at Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Kang Jinhyung
According to the 2024 Corporate Activity Survey released by the National Data Agency on December 16, companies' pre-tax net profit last year reached 181.9 trillion won, an increase of 31.1 trillion won from the previous year's 150.8 trillion won. This is the third-largest pre-tax net profit since relevant statistics began in 2006. An official from the agency explained, "The improvement in the semiconductor sector drove the increase in net profit."
By industry, manufacturing (29.7 trillion won) and transportation and warehousing (3.4 trillion won) saw increases. The average sales per company also rose by 5.2% from the previous year to 3,371.1 trillion won.
Corporate R&D expenditures reached 97.1 trillion won, a 21.4% increase from the previous year's 80 trillion won. The number of companies engaged in R&D increased by 0.8% to 7,690 from 7,630 the previous year. This is interpreted as a significant increase in R&D investment, especially among semiconductor companies.
Last year, the number of companies with domestic or overseas subsidiaries was 6,009, a 1.7% decrease from the previous year. The number of domestic subsidiaries owned by companies increased by 1.4% to 16,967. The largest share of overseas subsidiaries was in Asia, with 6,479 companies (63.9%), followed by North and South America with 2,214 (21.8%), and Europe with 1,209 (11.9%).
The number of companies developing or utilizing technologies related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as artificial intelligence (AI), was 3,398, up 28.1% from 2,653 the previous year. The main Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies being developed or utilized were cloud computing (23.5%), artificial intelligence (18.7%), big data (16.5%), and the Internet of Things (13.6%). By application area, these technologies were most used for product and service development (46.2%), production processes (17.8%), organizational management (16.0%), sales purposes (11.3%), and marketing strategies (8.8%).
During the past year, 401 companies entered new businesses, accounting for 2.7% of the total, up 0.3 percentage points from 2.4% the previous year. The number of companies whose main business changed reached 720, an 11.1% increase from the previous year.
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