IKEA recalls India-made travel mugs over chemical concerns

Global furniture giant IKEA said Wednesday that it is recalling India-made Troligtvis travel mugs due to health concerns related to chemicals in the products.The decision came amid worries that the mugs that have been sold since last year may migrate levels of dibutyl phthalate exceeding the recommended limits.  IKEA‘s Korea unit said that all customers who have bought the cups can get full refunds regardless of whether they have receipts.“We took the global recall measure so as

ConsumerJan. 15, 2020

Mahindra may seek support from KDB for SsangYong Motor: sources

An executive from Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. will come to South Korea this week to discuss and seek financial support from the main creditor bank of its local unit, SsangYong Motor Co., industry sources said Wednesday.SsangYong Motor confirmed Mahindra & Mahindra Managing Director Pawan Goenka will visit Seoul on Thursday but didn‘t provide any details about his schedule here. His visit comes ahead of the sport utility vehicle-focused carmaker’s planned board me

MobilityJan. 15, 2020

[Graphic News] Imported car sales dip 6.1% as Japanese brands struggle

　Imported car sales in South Korea fell 6.1 percent in 2019 from a year earlier as Japanese brands were affected by a boycott amid trade tensions between Seoul and Tokyo, an industry association said.  　The number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 244,780 last year from the previous year’s 260,705, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association.  　Japanese carmakers such as Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and Nissan Motor saw their sales plunge 19

BusinessJan. 15, 2020

Woori mulls appointment of new bank chief over possible FSS sanctions

Woori Financial Group is taking a cautious approach in naming the new chief of its flagship banking business due largely to the recent debacle involving the sale of high-risk private funds, according to industry sources Wednesday. The group initially planned to complete the appointment of an Woori Bank CEO before the Lunar New Year holidays, which fall Jan. 24-27. The Financial Supervisory Service is scheduled to convene a meeting Thursday to decide the punishments for the heads of two local com

MarketJan. 15, 2020

US investor Capital Group sells W660b stake in Hyundai Motor

US investment firm Capital Group Companies has offloaded a 2.56 percent stake in South Korea’s largest carmaker Hyundai Motor for 660.8 billion won ($570.9 million), according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.  With the stock sale, Capital Group, through its 32 specially related parties including funds and subsidiaries, now owns 4.54 percent voting rights in Hyundai Motor, which controls car brands Hyundai, Genesis and Kia. This comes as a result of over 300 transactions by th

MarketJan. 15, 2020

SKT eyes cooperation with Microsoft on Xbox game development

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile carrier, said Wednesday it aims to expand cooperation with Microsoft Corp. on console games.SKT said it plans to support the development of games for Xbox, a home video game console manufactured by Microsoft, by boosting investment and marketing activities.  To initiate the move, SKT said it participated in Microsoft's first Xbox Discovery Day event in Seoul. The event is a seminar organized by Microsoft for game developers and officials in the gamin

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

Baedal Minjok labor union fights to work longer

Woowa Youngmen, the operator of Baemin Riders -- a platform connecting restaurants and delivery drivers -- is facing opposition against its announcement to limit the weekly working hours of its delivery workers.Woowa Youngmens is a subsidiary of Woowa Brothers, the operator of Korea’s No. 1 food delivery application by market share. On Friday, it released a new work guideline, “2060 policy to prevent overworking,” to limit the workhours of drivers for Baemin Riders to 60 hours

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

Reinsurance firm Korean Re launches second branch in China

The Korean Reinsurance Co. (Korean Re), a leading domestic reinsurance firm here, announced the launch of its Shanghai office on Wednesday. The opening came after it received approval from China’s banking and insurance authorities in December. The new office is the second Chinese location for the Korean firm, which has run its business in Beijing since 1997. The new branch will be in charge of sales while the Beijing office will continue to lead the management and market research.The

MarketJan. 15, 2020

Eased data protection rules to benefit fintech giants and startups: analysts

The recent passage of bills on personal data and credit information of individuals by the National Assembly will likely give a boost to fintech giants and startups in South Korea, according to analysts.The three revised bills regarding the protection of private information, information and communications networks, and the use and protection of credit information will allow companies as well as government agencies to utilize personal information for various research and business purposes without

MarketJan. 15, 2020

Why going small is going big for Samsung Biologics

SAN FRANCISCO -- It may not be music to the ears of small and medium-sized contract manufacturing organizations, but Samsung Biologics said Tuesday it plans to expand its current business to cover smaller volumes. “We decided to add sCMO to our service for client satisfaction, to keep providing support to our contract development clients who need small batches of drug substance for their subsequent clinical phase one trials,” said Regina Choi-Rivera, head of the sCMO business unit at

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

S. Korea’s employment indexes hit record high, contradict job market reality

South Korea saw its employment rate hit a 22-year high last year, boosted by a stronger-than-expected job growth in December, government data showed Wednesday.Asia’s fourth-largest economy, however, continues to face structural problems as the latest result was mostly attributable to the government’s policy efforts and also focused heavily on specific age groups.The country recorded 27.15 million workers employed in December -- up 516,000 from a year earlier -- marking the large

EconomyJan. 15, 2020

Lime Asset to freeze additional W500b, FSS likely to launch new probe

Local fund operator Lime Asset Management has recently decided to freeze an additional 500 billion won ($431.4 million) of its funds, prompting the Financial Supervisory Service to launch a new probe of the firm’s risky funds.With the suspension of withdrawals, the total volume of the fund operator’s delayed payments to investors has risen to nearly 2 trillion won. In its latest notice sent to financial institutions that had worked as sales channels, Lime Asset said it has decided to

MarketJan. 15, 2020

LG Electronics to open robotics lab in Boston

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it will open a robotics lab in the United States to boost its competitiveness in bot technologies. LG's new robotics lab, set to open later this month in Boston, will allow its researchers to better check the latest robotics technologies. To beef up its robotics research, LG will also collaborate with Kim Sang-bae, a renowned robot scientist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who has been leading MIT Biomimetics Robotics Lab since 2012. Using

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

Genesis’ first SUV GV80 launched, threatens likes of Benz, BMW

Hyundai Motor launched Wednesday the much-anticipated first SUV from its luxury brand Genesis, the GV80, which is expected to compete with models from the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW. The world’s fifth-largest automaker in terms of sales aims to sell 24,000 units of the GV80 in Korea this year, with plans to launch in North America as well.  According to the company, the two-row GV80 was built on the brand’s first rear-wheel-drive platform, based on three key pillar

MobilityJan. 15, 2020

Yuhan-Kimberly donates over 5 million sanitary pads over 4 years

Yuhan-Kimberly, a Korean manufacturer of hygiene products, donated more than 5 million sanitary pads over the past four years, the company said Wednesday.The company’s donation is part of its “Cheer Up, Daughters” campaign to promote the rights of teens and the importance of hygiene for health, started in 2016 in partnership with the Korea Foundation for Women, a civic women’s group. According to the company, it donated 1.53 million pads in the first year, followed by 1 m

ConsumerJan. 15, 2020

Samsung's chip revenue 2nd-largest after Intel in 2019: data

Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's top tech firm, was relegated to second place in terms of chip sales in 2019, industry data showed Wednesday, due to the downturn in the memory chip market. Samsung's chip business logged $52.2 billion in revenue last year, down 29.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from US-based research firm Gartner. The latest performance dragged Samsung down to the No. 2 spot in the global semiconductor market for the first time since 2016. Samsung's share

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

Hanwha Systems’ $25m Overair deal closes

Hanwha Systems reached a final close on its cross-border $25 million investment in California-based electric takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft developer Overair, the Korean aero systems firm said Wednesday.With the investment, Hanwha Systems will own a 30 percent stake in the US company, which currently runs a development project for eVTOL vehicle Butterfly. The close of Overair’s Series A funding round came immediately after it gained a “deemed export” license from the B

MarketJan. 15, 2020

Foreigners' buying binge of Korean stocks continuing this year: data

Foreign investors have raked in some 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) worth of South Korean stocks this year on improved economic outlook and the imminent signing of a preliminary Sino-American trade deal, data showed Wednesday. During the Jan. 2-14 period, foreigners net purchased a total of 1.52 trillion won worth of local stocks, continuing their buying streak for an eighth straight session through Tuesday."Foreign buying has been strong on hopes for further progress in the US-China trade

MarketJan. 15, 2020

Netflix in Korea ordered to change unfair terms of use

South Korea’s antitrust regulator said Wednesday that Netflix would make changes in their terms of use that are deemed unfair, including changing subscription plans and prices without consent, in accordance with instructions it made to the company. The company’s revised terms of use will take effect starting on Jan. 20. This is the first time the government has ordered such changes to be made by a global over-the-top streaming service.The Fair Trade Commission also signaled that it w

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

NHN invests W5b in local ride-hailing platform Macaron Taxi

Ride-hailing platform Macaron Taxi’s operator KST Mobility said Wednesday it has received additional 5 billion won ($4.3 million) investment from NHN, capping the initial 18-billion-won investment required for its app-based service.  The two firms also agreed to collaborate on adding new services to the platform for user convenience, starting with NHN’s online payment system Payco.KST Mobility started its test run of the platform, titled “Series A,” in February last

IndustryJan. 15, 2020