S Korea hankers for Aussie hydrogen
Energy-hungry South Korea could not be more confident about Australia’s future as a giant exporter of green hydrogen.
Energy-hungry South Korea could not be more confident about Australia’s future as a giant exporter of green hydrogen.
“Australia is well on its path to becoming a top three hydrogen-exporting country to the Asian market,” South Korean Trade, Energy and Industry Minister Yun-mo Sung told a joint meeting of the Australia-Korea Business Council and Korean-Australia Business Council on Tuesday.
“Our bilateral business activity is being pursued with remarkable intensity.”
A host of South Korea corporate giants, including carmaker Hyundai and steel producer Posco, revealed their latest plans to switch to hydrogen energy at the annual Australia-Korea business summit.
Those plans by the third-biggest source of Australia’s exports include some of the biggest energy and resource companies on the ASX, including Origin, Woodside and Fortescue.
Australia-Korea Business Council chairman Simon Crean said the pace of change in hydrogen in the last year had been remarkable.
“Business is getting on with it,” Mr Crean, a former leader of the Labor Party, told The Australian on the sidelines of the summit.
President Moon Jae-In’s South Korean administration has positioned itself as the world leader in championing hydrogen energy, which can be produced by using other energy sources, such as renewable energy or natural gas.
Australia’s abundance of those inputs, along with its established business links and location, had positioned it well to fit into the Moon administration’s vision and a similar energy switch under way in Japan, Australia’s second-largest export market.
Posco senior vice-president Juik Cho said the South Korean steel company was working with Australian companies on hydrogen generation.
Mr Cho said those joint ventures between Posco and its Australian partners included “green steel”, which would be made with low-carbon hydrogen energy.
“Hydrogen has the potential to be a critical part of Australia’s future energy mix and our future engagement with Korea,” Trade Minister Simon Birmingham told the Australian-South Korean business meeting.
Senator Birmingham said Australia had ambitions to export up to 1.4 million tonnes of hydrogen globally by 2040.
Last week, the Morrison government announced its commitment to a scheme exploring the development of a hydrogen supply chain between Australia and Germany.
Senator Birmingham also pointed to critical minerals and rare earths as growth areas for Australia’s exports to South Korea, which last year totalled $24bn.
Australia’s three largest exports to South Korea in 2019 were iron ore, coal and natural gas.
Mr Crean, who was trade minister in the Rudd government, said the Australian Korea Business Council had recently set up a critical minerals subgroup to look at ways to benefit from the increased focus on secure supply chains.
“This has got enormous potential,” Mr Crean said.
Concerns about China’s dominance of the rare earths trade flared up when it unofficially banned exports to Japan after a 2010 dispute over the East Asian Sea.
Those concerns about the crucial inputs in electronics, computing and battery storage have heightened with China’s increased trade retaliation
Mr Crean said there were opportunities for Australia’s trade to South Korea to benefit from tensions with China.