Gumi, an industrial city in North Gyeongsang Province, has launched a roughly 70-member public-private-academic “Advanced Industry Innovation Task Force.” At a kickoff meeting attended by Mayor Kim Jang-ho and Vice Mayor Jeong Seong-hyeon, the city named six strategic fields — robotics, semiconductors, defense, AI/AI transformation, secondary batteries, and industrial complex development — and set up a sub-task-force for each.
Among them, the secondary battery task force is focused on batteries for robotics, defense, and energy storage systems (ESS). The city said it plans to use a battery-as-a-service (BaaS) pilot base and a battery testbed to build a full-cycle industrial ecosystem — from materials, components, and equipment manufacturing through to the reuse and recycling of used batteries.
Why battery reuse made it into a regional industry plan
Gumi has a longstanding electronics and display manufacturing base but has faced concerns in recent years about industrial hollowing-out. The new task force is essentially a bet on building a battery industry around expected demand from the city’s robotics, semiconductor, and defense sectors — and notably, the secondary battery task force explicitly named reuse and recycling as one leg of that full-cycle ecosystem. Batteries for robotics and defense applications operate under different conditions than EV batteries and require their own performance and safety standards; the plan reads as an attempt to keep the used batteries coming out of that ecosystem within the region for reuse and recycling.
What’s still unclear
What’s been made public so far is largely organizational — the task force’s launch and its stated direction. The specific scale and equipment for the BaaS pilot base and battery testbed, along with budget and timeline, have not been disclosed. It’s also unclear exactly how battery demand generated by the robotics and defense task forces would connect, in practice, to the secondary battery task force’s reuse and recycling plans. A separately mentioned 19 trillion won ($14 billion) investment plan from Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDS belongs to the broader industrial transformation context — likely tied to semiconductors — rather than to the secondary battery task force’s own budget. Mayor Kim said the task force launch could be “an opportunity to recreate a second Anycall myth and reshape Gumi’s industrial landscape,” referring to Samsung’s Anycall phone line, once manufactured in Gumi and long credited with the city’s earlier industrial boom.
What to watch
Formally naming used-battery reuse and recycling as part of a regional industrial transformation plan is a notable step for a local government, but standing up a task force is only the starting point. Whether the BaaS pilot base and testbed plans turn into concrete project announcements and budgets will be the real test of progress. ARC Current will be watching for Gumi’s follow-up plans for the secondary battery task force.
For context: Gumi was historically a hub for Samsung’s Anycall mobile phone manufacturing and later suffered from industrial decline as electronics manufacturing shifted elsewhere — the backdrop for the city’s current push to rebuild around robotics, defense, and battery-related industries.
Source: [Gong News] “구미, 로봇·반도체·방산 묶어 ‘첨단산업 전환’ 속도” (https://www.bzeronews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=820906)
Source: [Daegu Ilbo] “구미시, 70명 규모 ‘첨단산업 혁신TF’ 가동…삼성 19조 투자 플랜·특화” (https://www.idaegu.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=664832)
Source: [Gyeongbuk Ilbo] “구미시, 첨단산업 혁신TF 출범…미래산업 컨트롤타워 가동” (https://www.kyongbuk.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=4080248)