Korea’s mid-size builders have been dogged by severe financial problems due to a prolonged slump in the local housing market, a trade association said Tuesday. Over a quarter of the top 100 local builders, including LIG E&C Co., were put under a workout program or court receivership as of Tuesday, according to the Construction Association of Korea. The biggest reason for their cash shortages is...

A South Korean consortium including Korea Resources Corp. has acquired a 90 percent stake in an Indonesian bituminous coal mine for $84.15 million, the state-run mineral developer said Tuesday. KORES said it was involved in a joint venture with Korindo, a Korean-run developer in the Southeast Asian country, to buy the share for the 244 million-ton Kapuas mine from PKP Group, a local mineral expo...

Sony Corp., Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics, halted factories that make televisions and cameras, citing difficulties procuring components and materials following the March 11 earthquake. The company suspended operations at 5 plants in central and southern Japan, including in the Aichi and Oita prefectures, starting Tuesday until the end of this month, the Tokyo-based electronics...

Woori Finance Holdings Co., South Korea's No. 2 banking group, said Tuesday it picked the vice president of Woori Bank as the new chief executive officer of the group's flagship banking unit. The state-run financial services company said its seven-member special president selection committee selected Lee Soon-woo, 61, to lead South Korea's second-largest lender for three years. Woori Bank is cu...

Korean retailers said Monday that they have decided to suspend imports of foods and products from Japan due to growing consumer concern over their possible contamination with radiation released from an earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant. Lotte Mart Co., Korea’s third-largest discount store chain, said it will not sell pollack which have mainly been imported from Japan, starting Tuesday. “Th...

President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that Warren Buffett's continued donations have inspired many Korean firms to rethink their social responsibility. "(Your activity) has become a good example for companies in Korea and has aroused a lot of discussions on corporations' social responsibility," Lee said in a 45-minute meeting with the well-known American investor at the presidential office Cheong ...

State-run Korea National Oil Corp. has purchased a 23.67 percent stake in a U.S. oil field from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for US$1.55 billion, the government said Monday. The shale oil field in the Maverick Basin region in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border is estimated to hold 491 million barrels of oil equivalent, said the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, adding that KNOC will secure 116 million B...

Korea’s state-run Korea Gas Corp. said Monday that it has developed a design technology for the world’s largest liquefied natural gas tank. The tank has a storage capacity of 270,000 kiloliters, up 35 percent compared with that of the largest existing tank, helping reduce the construction cost per LNG tank by 23.5 billion won ($20.9 million), KOGAS said in a statement. The company said it is co...

With President Lee Myung-bak’s appointment of a new government financial regulator earlier this year, reform is once again a serious topic in Korea’s one-step-forward, two-steps-back financial services industry. “The most revolutionary area (of reform) will be the introduction of hedge funds,” said Ernst J. Lee, spokesperson for the Financial Services Commission, echoing recent pronouncements by...