New startups, particularly those in real estate, surged in the first half of this year despite the impact of the pandemic, data showed Thursday. According to the data released by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the number of new startups in the January-June period was 809,599, up 26 percent from the same period last year. The surge was attributed to new real estate businesses, which stood at 292,810 during the period, up 131.6 percent year-on-year. The real estate sector accounted for 36.

Mobility Aug. 27, 2020

Posco International said Wednesday its CEO Joo Si-bo and employees have joined the Thank You Challenge campaign to express gratitude to medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public campaign was launched by the Central Disaster Safety and Countermeasure Headquarters with the aim of encouraging medical workers struggling to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Anyone can participate in the campaign by posting a picture of sign language with gratitude on social media and naming the next p

Industry Aug. 26, 2020

South Korea’s major tire makers -- Hankook Tire, Kumho Tire and Nexen Tire -- have been smacked with a triple whammy. Local automakers are increasingly adopting imported brand tires, while the US antidumping probe on Korean tires is raising uncertainty in the global market. Internally, they face family feuds and labor-management conflicts. In the second quarter, the three tire makers posted dismal earnings amid the economic slowdown due to the pandemic. Hankook Tire’s sales

Mobility Aug. 26, 2020

Singapore’s antitrust watchdog has approved the merger of the world’s two largest shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries confirmed Tuesday. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore concluded the screening process by saying in a notice that “there is no disagreement about the approval of a tie-up between Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.” KSOE is a subholding company of HHI group’s shipbui

Mobility Aug. 25, 2020

With the rising popularity of car camping in South Korea, the pickup truck market in the country has surged in recent years, up from around 22,000 vehicles sold in 2017 to 42,000 in 2018. The trend has only grown with the COVID-19 pandemic as more people are opting for outdoor and social-distancing activities that require larger storage and stronger off-road driving capacity. Leading the segment is SsangYong Motor’s Rexton Sports, which pioneered the Korean market for open-deck sports

Mobility Aug. 25, 2020

Hyundai Motor ranked first in satisfaction for high-tech automobiles in the US mass market, according to the latest survey of US research firm JD Power on Tuesday. Hyundai ranked highest in the mass-market segment with a score of 556, offering an above-average level of technologies and scoring well for excellence in execution. Subaru (541) ranked second, followed by Kia (538), Nissan (534) and Ram (520). In the luxury segment, Genesis (559) placed sixth. Volvo ranked highest overall with an

Mobility Aug. 25, 2020

Apple has pledged 100 billion won ($84 million) to correct its business practices in South Korea by sharing advertising costs with mobile carriers and by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, the antitrust watchdog said Monday. The Fair Trade Commission said it had prepared a tentative agreement through consultations with Apple Korea after the US tech giant applied for a consent order June 4. The consent order initiated a process to close an FTC case against Apple by voluntarily agr

Industry Aug. 24, 2020

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco said it aimed to provide premium value to customers with its new construction steel brand Innovilt, which launched in November last year. The name Innovilt is a combination of innovation, value and built, which means to increase the value of construction steel materials through technological innovation, eco-friendliness and originality, Posco said. Construction steel materials are used in buildings and other infrastructure projects, such as roads

Industry Aug. 23, 2020

Expectations among Korean construction companies are high as the Korea Rural Community Corporation completed the design of a seawall project to prevent flood damage in Jakarta, Indonesia, in July and is set to submit a final report to the local government by the end of this year. In Indonesia, due to ground subsidence caused by rising sea levels and underground water development, the Jakarta coast is sinking 18 centimeters on average every year. Even when dikes are built, seawater repeatedly cr

Industry Aug. 23, 2020

GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem visited the automaker’s Changwon plant on Thursday to review the investment status of its next-generation products, the firm said Friday. GM Korea said, “The visit was made to check whether facility investment for new global products is progressing as planned amid the uncertainty in the business environment, such as heavy rain, heat wave and the pandemic. Kazem and a group of officials visited the construction site to monitor safety compliance and whethe

Mobility Aug. 21, 2020

As the coronavirus has resurged rapidly in the Greater Seoul area in recent days, industries are on alert again, fearing their business could face another bout of shutdowns. Many major companies resumed their remote work policies, or have flexible working hours to protect their workplace. Most large firms, including Samsung, LG, SK, KT, Posco and Hyundai Motor have a painful history of closing down their plants and office buildings due to coronavirus patients when the pandemic peaked in spr

Industry Aug. 20, 2020

Kia Motors has lost a nine-year wage lawsuit filed by workers as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the employees on Thursday. The automaker has to pay about 50 billion won ($42 million) to its 3,521 union members. In 2011, about 27,000 employees of Kia Motors filed a lawsuit claiming that overtime, night, holiday and annual leave allowances should be recalculated after including regular bonuses, daily expenses and lunch expenses in ordinary wages. The workers claimed around 1 trillion won

Mobility Aug. 20, 2020

South Korea’s conglomerates increased their investment in the first half of this year despite a drop in operating profit due to the pandemic, data showed Wednesday. Local corporate tracker CEOScore analyzed 374 companies within 64 large business groups in the first half of this year. The result showed that the firms’ operating profit dropped 25 percent on average year-on-year in the wake of the pandemic. Still, their investments increased 15.8 percent to reach 43.2 trillion won

Industry Aug. 20, 2020

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo has been selected as one of the 100 sustainable global leaders in 2020 by the United Nations, the organization said Wednesday. Koo was named in the list of the Global Sustainable Leaders 100 as selected by the Association for Supporting the SDGs for the UN under the United Nations Economic and Social Council. 　 Other selected global leaders include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Korean corpor

Industry Aug. 19, 2020

Posco International is set to boost online trading of steel in partnership with local steel e-commerce operators, the firm said Wednesday. The trading firm said it signed a business agreement with four steel e-commerce operators, Sinsteel, Chungnam Steel, Daeduck Steel and Steelman Networks. Through the agreement, they plan to connect each company’s sites in the form of banners on the online transaction site Steel Trade -- which was opened by Posco International in November last year

Industry Aug. 19, 2020