Annual sales by South Korean steel giant Posco have hit the 60 trillion won ($56.4 billion) mark for the first time in three years, with 4.62 trillion won in operating profit, the biggest gain in the last six years, the company said Wednesday.With numbers improving in both the steel and nonsteel sectors, the company saw the biggest operating profit since 2011, the company said. Increased sales of premium steel products as well as improved profits from the steelmaker’s overseas unit contributed t

Industry Jan. 24, 2018

Chief executive officers of major businesses under LG Group, the nation’s fourth-largest conglomerate by assets, will gather for a two-day meeting Wednesday to discuss business strategies this year and produce synergy between affiliates.The meeting will be led by Koo Bon-joon, vice chairman of the group’s holding company LG Corp., with CEOs from the conglomerate’s major businesses spanning electronics to cosmetics attending, industry officials said Tuesday.  LG headquarter in Seoul (The Korea He

Industry Jan. 23, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- Consumers have witnessed massive changes in the tech industry in the last decade, with innovative concepts and technologies that, for instance, have combined a camera, the internet and phone into a single palm-sized device. Similar yet more transformative change is likely to begin, with self-driving vehicles in such forms as robo taxis that will hit the road in the next decade, according to a US developer of operating systems for autonomous cars.Robo taxis, or robo cabs, refer to se

Mobility Jan. 23, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- Waiting in line for a vacant parking space in shopping malls and offices may no longer be necessary starting later this year. In an announcement made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Hyundai Mobis, a car parts maker under South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor, said it will unveil an automatic valet parking system by the end of this year. The system would enable a vehicle to park itself in a remote space after a driver gets off at his or her destination. Th

Mobility Jan. 11, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- For Hyundai Motor Group, 2017 was a nightmare. The South Korean carmaker’s sales in China, the automaker’s biggest market, plummeted more than 50 percent due to a near-boycott movement among local customers amid a diplomatic row over Seoul’s decision to deploy the US’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system. Many described the situation as an unprecedented crisis for Hyundai, which has been on a rollercoaster ride since the early 2000s. Chung Eui-sun, heir to the wor

Mobility Jan. 10, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor will produce a hardware platform to operate a gigabit network for its premium cars hitting the market next year, the companies said Tuesday.The new in-vehicle network enables high-speed transfer of data and offers integrated, multilayered security, as well as full end-to-end networking, Hyundai said in an announcement with Cisco at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.The development of first-generation solutions to enable 1 gigabit-per-se

Mobility Jan. 10, 2018

LAS VEGAS --Addressed as “E. S. Chung,” for the finale of Hyundai Motor’s press conference at the Consumer Electronics Conference held on Monday, Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun, heir to South Korea’s biggest carmaker faced a barrage of questions from reporters covering the event. The 46-year-old who spent many years as the heir to the auto giant said, in fluent English, that the carmaker is competing with major carmakers for future vehicle technology, but is also collaborating with them for market

Mobility Jan. 9, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- With major carmakers facing challenges in making vehicles both environmentally friendly and autonomous, South Korean auto giant Hyundai unveiled a next-generation hydrogen-powered sport utility vehicle Monday, touting the vehicle as the most reliable self-driving platform.Nexo is the successor of the Tucson FCEV, the carmaker’s first fuel cell SUV launched in 2013. The latest model can drive nearly 600 kilometers per charge, a 40 percent increase from its predecessor, therefore maki

Mobility Jan. 9, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- International motor shows have long been a gateway for many carmakers like Hyundai Motor Group to win global recognition. However, the South Korean auto giant is increasingly paying attention to tech shows including the Consumer Electronics Show, rather than the Detroit Motor Show, an event scheduled for the end of this month. Defining itself as a latecomer in autonomous technology and connected mobility, Hyundai Motor’s top tech officer said Monday that the company is eager to form

Mobility Jan. 9, 2018

LAS VEGAS -- Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun said Sunday that the carmaker is working both with Nvidia, and also with its rival Intel, for the carmaker’s autonomous driving technology.Chung, the only son to Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo, was attending Nvidia’s press conference held in Las Vegas on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show, where the US company announced its partnership with Volkswagen and Uber for self-driving vehicles. Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Eu

Mobility Jan. 8, 2018

ORANGE COUNTY, California -- From Silicon Valley to Tel Aviv and Seoul, South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor Group plans to establish five innovation hubs in cities spanning the globe and link them as one sharing platform to drive dynamic growth. The carmaker opened Hyundai Cradle in Silicon Valley in November to support startups and discover future mobility technology. And it plans to open four more such centers, in Seoul, Tel Aviv, Berlin and Beijing within this year. “Cradle” stands for Cent

Mobility Jan. 8, 2018

Hyundai Motor Group promoted Albert Biermann, vice president of the carmaker’s performance development division, to a president-level post, recognizing his role in enhancing the driving dynamics of its luxury brand Genesis on par with other premium carmakers, the company said Friday.  Albert Biermann (Hyundai Motor)Biermann is the second foreign expert to be named as a president, after the South Korean carmaker appointed Peter Schreyer, former Audi designer, as the president of Hyundai-Kia desig

Mobility Jan. 5, 2018

It might look like any other Formula 1 racing car. But Mahindra’s Formula E vehicle, an electric racing car, is not just made for sports. It’s a moving lab for the Indian automaker that is betting big on green cars for the future.Mahindra Racing, a racing car team under the Indian conglomerate, is one of the 10 founding teams of Formula E, a class of auto racing that uses cars powered only by electricity.Touted as being green and entertaining, the Indian company has joined the Formula E series w

Mobility Jan. 5, 2018

Hyundai Motor has partnered with the US startup Aurora, which develops sensors and software for autonomous vehicles, with a plan to commercialize a level-four self-driving system by 2021, the South Korean carmaker said Thursday.Hyundai MotorThis is the first partnership that Hyundai has formed for the development of a self-driving system, marking a shift in the company’s previous strategy of developing the system on its own, officials said.The project between the two will be announced at the Con

Mobility Jan. 4, 2018

Innocean Worldwide, an advertising arm of Hyundai Motor Group, will unveil a set of smart sunglasses programmed to prevent drowsy driving and help drivers with hearing problems at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company said Wednesday. The product named “Glatus” has sensors built into the sides of the sunglasses to detect the wearer’s biorhythm. If signs of sleepiness are detected, the sunglasses vibrate to warn the wearer of the dangers of driving while drowsy, the company said. Glatus by In

Industry Jan. 3, 2018