Ulsan

Hyundai built Ulsan and Ulsan built Hyundai—the codependency is so complete that separating company from city is like separating a hermit crab from its shell. Hyundai Motor's Ulsan plant is the single largest automobile manufacturing facility on Earth, capable of producing 1.6 million vehicles annually across five sub-plants sprawling over 5 million square meters. Hyundai Heavy Industries, born from the same chaebol family, operates the world's largest shipyard here. Together, these two Hyundai operations make Ulsan one of the most industrially productive cities per capita on the planet.

The numbers are staggering. Ulsan generates the highest GDP per capita of any South Korean city—roughly double the national average—despite having fewer than a million residents. The city produces 40% of South Korea's ships and a significant share of its automobiles and petrochemical output. SK Energy and S-Oil operate massive refineries here, processing crude oil imported through the port into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks.

This concentration emerged from deliberate state planning. Park Chung-hee's government designated Ulsan as a special industrial zone in 1962, channeling investment into shipbuilding and heavy industry as part of South Korea's export-oriented industrialization strategy. Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung chose Ulsan for its deep-water harbor and proximity to Japanese suppliers. The resulting industrial cluster is a textbook case of state-directed niche construction.

Ulsan's vulnerability is proportional to its productivity. If the global auto industry shifts faster than Hyundai can adapt, or if shipbuilding orders collapse (as they periodically do), the city's economy contracts like a muscle losing blood supply. Ulsan is betting on Hyundai's electric vehicle transition and hydrogen fuel cell development—but the city's fate remains shackled to a single corporate family's strategic decisions.