The Korea Herald

Samsung Engineering-led group wins $3b order

A consortium led by Samsung Engineering Co. has secured an order worth $3 billion to build a power plant in Saudi Arabia, South Korea’s largest industrial plant builder said Monday.Under the deal with Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corp., the consortium will build the 3,100-MW power plant in Yanbu, 350 kilometers north of the country’s second-largest city of Jeddah, in 48 months after it begins work.Samsung’s share in the project is valued at around $1.5 billion, according to the company

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

Shares almost flat amid U.S. fiscal cliff woes

South Korean stocks closed flat Monday as investors took to the sidelines amid the prolonged concerns on the U.S. fiscal cliff, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index finished down 0.03 points to 1957.42. Trading volume was light at 361.6 million shares worth 3.6 trillion won ($3.3 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 460 to 364. “Shares trading remained weak as investors took a wait-and-see approach following the protra

Dec. 10, 2012

Producer prices dip by most in 3 years in Nov.

South Korea’s producer prices fell by the most in three years in November due to a fall in oil prices and the local currency’s ascent to the dollar, the central bank said Monday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, inched down 0.2 percent in November from a year earlier, compared with a 0.2 percent on-year gain in October, according to the Bank of Korea. The November figure marked the worst performance since November 2009 when the index fell 0.4 percent on-year.Com

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

‘Apple created Samsung nightmare’

Apple may have turned Samsung into Frankenstein’s monster by entrusting it with the supply of iPhone components, a former employee of Apple’s strategy unit contended in a blog posting on Dec. 7. James Allworth, present fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School, said that Apple’s expensive, risky patent war against the South Korean handset maker was not the solution to end the dispute. Allworth wrote in his Asymco posting, “The problem that Apple is facing right now

TechnologyDec. 10, 2012

Hyundai chief urges readiness for market slowdown next year

Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo on Monday urged overseas operational chiefs to brace for a slowdown in the car market next year. Chung was briefed at a meeting with some 70 heads of global operations of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors on this year’s sales performance and key issues across regions. He is said to have thanked them for supporting the Korean auto giant to achieve this year’s sales goal despite difficult economic conditions in key markets such as Europe and the U.S. Though t

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

Hyundai chief urges readiness for market slowdown next year

CJ to shun expansion of its bakery chain for ‘fair economy’

CJ Foodville, the franchise business unit of local food giant CJ Group, announced Monday it would limit the number of its Tous les Jours chain bakeries to meet people’s demands for shared growth with smaller bakeries. The decision ― the first of its kind ― by the nation’s No. 2 bakery chain came amid intensifying disputes between bakery chain stores owned by conglomerates and mom-and-pop shops in the same neighborhood. Conglomerates’ bakery chains, armed with price competitiveness based on mass

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

Seoul will beef up financing for overseas industrial projects: FSC

Financial Services Commission chief Kim Seok-dong said on Monday that Seoul would increase financial support of companies’ large overseas projects such as nuclear power plants, offshore plants and urban development.“In order to find major momentum for the financial industry, Seoul will beef up financing support of major overseas projects including mega-sized atomic power plants, urban development and offshore plants,” Kim told reporters in Seoul.“Our companies’ reliance on European investment ba

Dec. 10, 2012

Seoul will beef up financing for overseas industrial projects: FSC

Samsung, Hyundai dominate 2012 earnings

The earnings gaps between the nation’s top two conglomerates ― Samsung and Hyundai Motor ― and other major business groups are widening, data showed on Monday.Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group are expected to take up about 70 percent of earnings reaped by the nation’s 10 largest conglomerates this year, according to chaebul.com, a conglomerate-tracking website.In terms of operating profit, Samsung Group accounted for 46.2 percent (17.5 trillion won) of the collective 37.9 trillion won by the

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

MAN Truck head elected as new head of ECCK

The European Chamber of Commerce in Korea has elected Thilo Halter, chief executive of MAN Truck & Bus Korea, as its new chairman. Halter will be flanked by a pair of co-vice chairmen that include BMW Korea’s chief finance officer and vice president Hans-Christian Baertels. Formerly the EU Chamber of Commerce, the organization underwent a complete overhaul in September to register as a nonprofit organization with the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy. Halter, as the new chairman, has pledged to

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

MAN Truck head elected as new head of ECCK

Foreigners should not expect ‘freebies’

The following is the second in a series of stories featuring support and networking systems for foreigner-owned businesses in Korea. ― Ed.With the eighth-most business-friendly environment in the world ― so said the World Bank in October ― along with free government-provided services in English, Japanese and Chinese at the Seoul Global Business Center, free economic zones scattered across the country and various foreign direct investment incentives, there’s something to be said about Korea’s ini

Dec. 10, 2012

Lee takes helm of KT Cultural Foundation

Mobile carrier KT said Monday that its executive vice president Lee Gil-joo was named the chairman of KT Cultural Foundation.Having served in KT’s public communications unit for 27 years, Lee, 57, took office as the foundation’s chairman on the same day. The communications expert will significantly expand the foundation’s scope of public communications, KT said. “I will make the most of my experience in communications at KT to promote the foundation’s values, and ultimately to set a milestone to

Dec. 10, 2012

Lee takes helm of KT Cultural Foundation

Chocolate, it's all about the guilt

The very guilt associated with indulging in forbidden foods such as chocolate can, in fact, enhance women's enjoyment of them, U.S. researchers say. Lead researcher Kelly Goldsmith of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago said the study findings show "experiencing the emotion of guilt can increase pleasure," Time magazine reported In one of the study's experiments, 103 participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the group primed to feel more guil

TechnologyDec. 10, 2012

Orange vegetables may reduce breast cancer

U.S. researchers found women with the highest levels of carotenoids -- found in produce -- in their blood had the lowest risk of breast cancer. A. Heather Eliassen of the Channing Division of Network Medicine, the Department of Medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, conducted an analysis of eight studies involving 80 percent of the world's published prospective data on plasma or serum carotenoids and breast cancer.The study, published in the Journal of

TechnologyDec. 10, 2012

Fittest students get higher grades

Middle school students in the best physical shape do better than their less fit classmates on standardized tests and report cards, U.S. researchers say.Lead researcher Dawn Coe, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville who conducted the research as a doctoral student in Michigan State University‘s kinesiology department, said the study was among the first to examine how academic performance relates to all aspects of physical fitness -- including body fat, muscular stren

TechnologyDec. 10, 2012

Korea's trade volume tops $1 tln for 2nd year

Korea's exports and imports exceeded $1 trillion on Monday, breaching the $1-trillion mark for the second consecutive year, the government said."The trade volume came to over $1 trillion as of 11:06 this morning," Kwon Pyung-oh, a spokesman for the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, told reporters.Exports have so far amounted to $512.8 billion with imports coming to about $487.2 billion as of Monday, according to the ministry.The country's trade volume topped $1 trillion for the first time in its hi

IndustryDec. 10, 2012

Apple Maps glitch could be deadly: Australian police

Australian police Monday warned motorists about using the map system on new Apple iPhones after rescuing several people left stranded in the wilderness, saying the errors could prove deadly.Victoria state police said drivers were sent “off the beaten track” in recent weeks while attempting to get to the inland town of Mildura, being directed instead to the middle of a national park.“Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 4

TechnologyDec. 10, 2012

Apple Maps glitch could be deadly: Australian police

Parasite has links to self-harm

A parasite dubbed the “cat parasite” leads to self-harming behaviors such as suicide, according to Swedish researchers. However, the discovery shouldn’t raise concern as humans have been infected with it for a long time.In a study, the team first infected human dendritic cells with toxoplasma, and observed the infected ones secreting the signal substance, GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid). In the following experiment conducted on live mice, it found that the infected dendritic cells spread through

TechnologyDec. 10, 2012

Manufacturing sector at its worst in three years

Production growth in Korea’s manufacturing sector slowed to near zero, its worst since more than three years ago when the nation was hit hardest by the global financial crisis.Output growth of small and medium-sized companies turned negative for the first time since then. The worldwide economic slowdown, led by the fiscal crisis in the eurozone, discouraged production at Korean SMEs pushing down their plant operation rate to its lowest level in three years. The entire manufacturing sector’s outp

Dec. 9, 2012

Insurers at risk as sales hit record low

Insurance policy sales volume fell to its lowest-ever level this year as the prolonged economic slump has prompted people to skimp on preparing against near-future risks.If the interest rate drops by another 1 percentage point or more, life insurers as well as small and medium-sized nonlife insurers are bound to see losses starting 2015, the Korea Insurance Research Institute warned. Financial Service Commission chief Kim Seok-dong compared the insurance companies to “a train heading towards a c

Dec. 9, 2012

Insurers at risk as sales hit record low

Firm hopes to sell $1.5b trips to the moon

Attention wealthy nations and billionaires: A team of former NASA executives will fly you to the moon in an out-of-this-world commercial venture combining the wizardry of Apollo and the marketing of Apple.For a mere $1.5 billion, the business is offering countries the chance to send two people to the moon and back, either for research or national prestige. And if you are an individual with that kind of money to spare, you too can go the moon for a couple days.Some space experts, though, are skep

TechnologyDec. 9, 2012

Firm hopes to sell $1.5b trips to the moon