The Korea Herald

Hong named new head of KOTRA

IndustryJun 22, 2011

Hong Suk-woo, a former chief of the Small & Medium Business Administration, has been named new president of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the trade agency said Wednesday. Hong, 58, will supervise the agency’s overall business and shore up overseas operations, concentrating on “globalizing small-and medium-sized firms to steer the era of $1 trillion trade,” KOTRA said in a statemen...
Sales of Android smartphones top 10m

Jun 22, 2011

Sales of smartphones running Google Inc.’s Android software surpassed the 10 million mark in Korea this week, according to data from the country’s mobile carriers Wednesday. The country’s largest mobile carrier, SK Telecom Co., had 6.18 million subscribers using Android smartphones as of Monday, while runner-up KT Corp. had 2.06 million, they said. Smallest player LG Uplus Corp. lured in 1.86 mi...
Creditors to pick Korea Express bidder

Jun 22, 2011

Creditors of Korea Express Co. are expected to select a preferred bidder for a major stake in the country’s top logistics company next week as they move to complete the sale as early as August, industry sources said Wednesday. Creditors led by Korea Development Bank agreed to close the bidding for a 37.6 percent stake in Korea Express on June 27 and notified the three preliminary bidders ― POSCO...
CJ CheilJedang fined W340m for probe interference

Jun 22, 2011

CJ CheilJedang, Korea’s largest food company, was slapped with 340 million won ($316,000) in fines for interrupting the corporate watchdog’s probe into alleged price-fixing activities, the Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday. The fine is the largest single penalty imposed for unlawful interference in an investigation by the watchdog. The FTC said it is seeking to punish five workers at the comp...
Korean exports to top $500b this year: report

Jun 22, 2011

Korean exports are expected to surpass the $500 billion mark for the first time ever this year, helped by the steady pace of global economic growth, a private think tank said Wednesday. The Samsung Economic Research Institute report said South Korea is expected to ship out a total of $555.7 billion worth of goods this year, up 19.2 percent from $466.4 billion worth of products exported in 2010. ...
GS Caltex dips into state oil reserves

IndustryJun 22, 2011

GS Caltex Corp., the nation’s No.2 oil refiner, on Wednesday said it has borrowed 870,000 barrels of diesel oil from reserves kept by the Korea National Oil Corp. This marks the first time in three years that the refiner has dipped into government fuel reserves. The borrowed fuel is expected to be released at local gas stations next week. GS Caltex has recently been unable to properly provide ...
POSCO unit signs housing-compound project in Russia

IndustryJun 22, 2011

POSCO announced Wednesday that its construction subsidiary POSCO A&C signed a contract to build a housing complex for a coalfield in Sakha Republic in eastern Russia. Under the contract, issued by Russia’s largest resource developer Mechel, POSCO A&C will build a 48,000 square meter housing compound for workers at the Elga coalfield in Sakha Republic. POSCO A&C plans to begin works on the compo...
FSS seeks to curb power of financial chiefs

Jun 22, 2011

Regulator focuses on enhancing independence of groups’ units Regulators are moving to scale down the authority of major financial group chairmen, saying the current system provides them with “excessive” power to control all of their groups’ units. “The direction would be focused on enhancing the independence of financial groups’ subsidiaries by tackling chairmen’s authority,” said an official o...
MSCI keeps Korea’s emerging market status

Jun 22, 2011

Global investment index provider MSCI Inc. retained Korea’s emerging market status on its global equities index, citing problems stemming from its market rigidity and lack of accessibility. The move represents another setback for Korea. MSCI left Korea’s status unchanged in 2009 and 2010 due to the “rigidity” of its investor identification system and lack of an active offshore market for the Kor...
K-sure named best Asian export creditor

IndustryJun 22, 2011

The Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, known as K-sure, said Tuesday it has been selected as the best Asian export credit agency by the U.K.-based Trade Finance Magazine. K-sure is one of the country’s two export-import insurance agencies other than the Export-Import Bank. It provides insurance products and project financing and issue bonds to exporters for their shipment, overseas construction ...
KCC keeps SKT, KT off 2.1 GHz broadband range

Jun 22, 2011

The Korea Communications Commission agreed to exclude two mobile carriers SK Telecom and KT Corp. from a new wireless broadband spectrum auction, giving the upper hand to LG Uplus on Wednesday. Five commissioners of the state media and telecom regulating body said SKT and KT will be blocked from taking part in the 2.1 gigahertz radio spectrum auction, slated for early August. “We decided to go ...
Household debt burden grows

Jun 22, 2011

Ratio of household credit to GNDI rising: BOK Households’ ability to pay their debts was critically weak during the first quarter as the pace of debt growth surpassed that of income growth. According to the Bank of Korea, the nation’s household credit, including loans and credit purchasing, reached 801.4 trillion won ($750 billion) at the end of March, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier. Centr...
CEO pizzas charm 1,000 LGE employees

IndustryJun 22, 2011

LG Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Koo Bon-joon has sent out “CEO pizzas” to up to 1,000 employees to help boost morale, the Seoul-based electronics maker said on Wednesday. The latest batch of pizzas, sent out by Koo to express his affection for the LGE staff, were delivered on Tuesday to LG Electronics’ Air-conditioning and Energy Solution division’s “Chiller” team’s production and R&D units...
Conglomerates set up more units in offshore tax havens

IndustryJun 22, 2011

The country’s top 30 conglomerates were found to have set up a spiraling number of overseas corporations in countries without tax treaties with the South Korean government. Lotte Group had the largest number of corporations in such nations overall, according to Chaebul.com, an online portal devoted to analyzing conglomerate activities on Wednesday. As of last year, the conglomerate had 33 such ...
Vertical integration key strategy for conglomerates

IndustryJun 22, 2011

Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, STX reap fruits from multi-layered business structure Amid robust industrialization a few decades ago, Korea’s major companies were striving to adopt a multi-layer business practice called vertical integration. They are now transforming into global industry leaders, bearing the fruit of these efforts. The unique concept of management dates back to the 19th century wh...