The Korea Herald

KITA sets up Vietnam office

Sept 7, 2011

South Korea’s trade association said Wednesday that it has opened a representative office in Vietnam to help companies expand business ties with the fast-growing Southeast Asian country. The Korea International Trade Association said the office in Ho Chi Minh City will act as a new center for South Korean businesses by providing market-related information and helping companies resolve difficulti...
14,400 bottles of wine as a gift to shipbuilder

Sept 7, 2011

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. received 14,400 bottles of wine from a German shipping firm as a Chuseok gift, the company said Wednesday. According to the company, 14,400 is about the same as the number of workers at Hyundai Samho and its suppliers. According to the shipbuilder, the German shipping firm Peter Doehle sent 14,400 bottles of Chilean wine as a token of appreciation for the quali...
Hyundai Oilbank launches ‘1 percent’ donation initiative

Sept 7, 2011

Executives and employees of Hyundai Oilbank pledged on Wednesday to donate 1 percent of their salaries each month via payroll deduction, stepping up the company’s social contribution efforts. Officials including chief executive Kwon Oh-gap and union leaders signed an agreement at its Seoul headquarters for the initiative, the country’s smallest refiner said. The payroll giving is widely used in...
Hite-Jinro unveils corporate identity, vision

Sept 7, 2011

Hite-Jinro Group has unveiled its new vision to enter the global market as it relaunches after merging Korea’s top beer and soju makers into a single liquor giant. Hite Brewery Co., the country’s biggest beer producer with a 55.8 percent stake in the Korean market as of last year, took over Jinro Co., the No. 1 distiller here, which accounts for almost half of the soju segment. The merger, initi...
Apple’s iPhone to overtake Nokia on smartphone shipment: report

Sept 7, 2011

U.S. IT giant Apple is set to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer by volume, overtaking Nokia, a report showed on Tuesday. According to DigiTimes, a Taipei-based daily, Apple is expected to take 19 percent of the global smartphone market with shipments of 86.4 million units this year. The number of shipped handsets has surged 82 percent from 47.5 million units in 2010. Nokia, ano...
After raid, Google vows cooperation with Korea's anti-trust probe

Sept 7, 2011

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Google Inc. said Tuesday that it will cooperate with South Korea's investigation into its alleged unfair business practices, as reports said the local authorities raided the firm's Seoul offices. South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raided the offices earlier in the day as part of its probe into a claim by the country's major portals that Google is blocking Android sm...
SK Networks may sell school uniform business

Sept 6, 2011

SK Networks is seeking a buyer to take over its uniform business, local media reported Tuesday. According to reports citing an unidentified SK Networks official, the company is looking for a buyer, and a number of potential buyers conducted preliminary due diligence on the matter last week. The company, however, said that the reports were unconfirmed and that the issue remains undecided. “The ...
Merck showcases solar materials in Germany

Sept 6, 2011

Merck KGaA, a multinational pharmaceutical and chemical group, said Tuesday it is showcasing its newest components of a solar power system at a tradeshow in Germany this week. About 950 companies and organizations from more than 100 countries gathered in Hamburg to catch up on the latest trends and developments in the burgeoning solar industry at the 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Confe...
Retail giants agree on commission cut

Sept 6, 2011

The Fair Trade Commission said Tuesday that major retailers have agreed to lower the commission they charge traders who use their floor space from October. According to the antitrust regulator, FTC chairman Kim Dong-soo and 11 CEOs of department stores, discount chains and home-shopping channels reached an agreement on a 3 to 7 percent reduction in a meeting held Tuesday. Specific reduction pla...
Korea now 7th-largest builder

Sept 6, 2011

South Korea took up the seventh position in the global construction market in terms of combined orders won by its builders last year, a trade association said Tuesday. The Korea Federation of Construction Contractors said South Korea’s 11 construction firms clinched a combined market share of 4.8 percent, one notch higher from the previous year, citing an analysis on the 2011 top international c...
Airlines to hire record number of staff

Sept 6, 2011

Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, Korea’s two plan to hire a record number of new employees this year. Korean Air said Monday it will add 330 new crew members to the 1,000 already hired in the first half of the year to smooth operation of new aircraft and routes. Asiana plans to bring in 465 young skilled workers including 222 flight attendants, it said Tuesday. That will push up the total number...
‘Integration of supply chain key to meat exports’

Sept 6, 2011

HORSENS, Denmark ― For struggling local red meat producers in the post-Korea-EU FTA market, the surest way to seek advice was to go to Danish Crown, Europe’s top pork exporter that continues to expand despite one of the world’s highest production costs. At the Danish livestock farmer co-op’s slaughterhouse in Horsens, 200 kilometers east of Copenhagen, 100,000 pigs are killed and processed per w...
‘Samsung moves to adopt new 3-D display technology’

Sept 6, 2011

An LG executive said Tuesday that the firm’s rival Samsung Electronics is moving away from the active 3-D display technology and develop its own “passive” technology for its TVs. The executive, who wished to remain unidentified, said that Samsung will adopt the passive 3-D technology although it will be different from the film-type patterned retarder technology supported by LG. Debates over the...
Cutting-edge gadgets highlight at IFA 2011

Sept 6, 2011

KT, Sony, Toshiba unveil future-oriented wireless gadgets at world trade show BERLIN ― This year’s IFA was highlighted with new and trendy gadgets ranging from a digital gadget that could inter-connect multiple gadgets to electronic devices that spread the use of 3-D. KT Corp., the country’s top fixed-line service operator, came to Germany’s electronics and home appliance trade fair for the fir...
Small car sales rise to year high on economic worries

Sept 5, 2011

Small automobile sales rose to a year high in August boosted by rising fuel prices and concerns for a new worldwide economic downturn. According to industry data, 38,698 small vehicles were sold on the local market in August, accounting for 53.5 percent of passenger car sales. Small automobiles are defined as those whose engines are less than 2-liter displacement under local regulations. Last m...