Seoul, South Korea - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Workshop of SBB Tech
2. Various of parts on table
3. Various of workers assembling parts
4. Equipment in operation
5. Ryu Jae-wan, CEO of SBB Tech talking with reporter
6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Ryu Jae-wan, CEO of SBB Tech (starting with shot 5):
"In the past, customers were very picky and demanded higher quality products on par with Japanese imports with lower costs. That made it extremely difficult for us to supply our clients. Thankfully, we now have the opportunity to enter the market with an alternative product."
7. Various of workers assembling parts
8. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Ryu Jae-wan, CEO of SBB Tech (ending with shots 9-12):
"The functionality of our products has been developed. But to take the next step into mass production and standardizing of production, we need to invest in things like automation. But we have to do it without guaranteed demand."
9. Workshop of SBB Tech
10. Worker assembling parts
11. Ryu holding parts
12. Ryu talking with reporter
13. Various of workers at workshop
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Yang Jun-sok, economic professor of the Catholic University of Korea (starting with shot 13):
"In the long term, we expect the damage to be less because the longer the time frame, the more time [South] Koreans have to find replacements or develop its own domestic sources for these components. But in the short term, if Japan does decide to really control the exports of these items and restrict exports to [South] Korea, the short-term damage will probably be estimated somewhere between two to five percent of GDP at worst."
15. Various of workers assembling part

FILE: Seoul, South Korea - July 25, 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
16. Various of National Assembly building

FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
17. Japanese national flag
18. Japan's National Diet building

As the trade dispute intensifies between South Korea and Japan, concern is growing among businesses in both countries. With no end in sight, some South Korean companies have to adjust to the new business environment, dealing with new opportunities and challenges brought by the trade row.

South Korea on Wednesday filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Japan over its restrictions on the export to South Korea of three materials vital to making memory chips and display panels.

SBB Tech is a South Korean factory which produces ball bearings and other precision components used in industrial machinery and robots. Its business used to be difficult trying to compete with products from Japan, as customers have been inclined to buy more high-quality yet expensive Japanese imports.

But ever since Japan removed South Korea from its so-called trade 'whitelist' of preferred nations, business has been on the rise.

"In the past, customers were very picky and demanded higher quality products on par with Japanese imports with lower costs. That made it extremely difficult for us to supply our clients. Thankfully, we now have the opportunity to enter the market with an alternative product," said Ryu Jae-wan, CEO of SBB Tech.

With crisis comes opportunities. That's why the South Korean government wants to use this opportunity to nurture and develop local parts suppliers. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has promised to invest nearly 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in research and development of parts, materials and equipment over the next seven years to rely less on Japanese imports.

"The functionality of our products has been developed. But to take the next step into mass production and standardized production, we need to invest in things like automation. But we have to do it without guaranteed demand," said Ryu.

Though the trade row stimulates the development of South Korea’s domestic industries to some extent, experts said the companies and industries in South Korea will inevitably suffer losses, especially in the short term.

"In the long term, we expect the damage to be less because the longer the time frame, the more time [South] Koreans have to find replacements or develop its own domestic sources for these components. But in the short term, if Japan does decide to really control the exports of these items and restrict exports to [South] Korea, the short-term damage will probably be estimated somewhere between two to five percent of GDP at worst," said Yang Jun-sok, economic professor of the Catholic University of Korea in Seoul.