Hyundai, Kia’s car sales inch up in July

GM Korea, Renault Samsung, Ssangyong post sagging salesHyundai Motor and Kia Motors saw their year-on-year vehicle sales increase last month on the back of robust performance overseas.Hyundai-Kia’s overseas factories in particular led the affiliated carmakers’ sales growth. They operate manufacturing plants in countries such as the U.S., China, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Hyundai Motor said it posted sales of 332,027 units in July, up 3.1 percent a year earlier.The nation’s largest a

IndustryAug. 1, 2012

Majority of experts see chance of ‘systemic risk’ in 3 years

A survey of local financial experts conducted by the Bank of Korea in July showed that a majority of them see a high chance of a “systemic risk” occurring in the next three years.Of the 74 respondents, 52.7 percent said the possibility of a systemic risk, or the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or entire market, occurring between one to four years from now was high. Twelve percent answered the opposite.As for the probability of a systemic risk occurring within a year, 27.1 percent

Aug. 1, 2012

FSS seeks to ease household mortgage payments

Korea’s financial watchdog said Wednesday it is seeking to adopt steps to ease households’ repayment burden of home-backed loans as the slumping property market erodes the value of collateral.The Financial Supervisory Service said it is studying plans to have banks convert maturing mortgages exceeding a lending limit, or the loan-to-value ratio, into credit loans instead of retrieving them. The LTV ratio is one of the main tools to curb household loans by restricting the maximum amount of money

Aug. 1, 2012

Trade dependence hits record high in 2011

Korea’s dependence on trade rose to an all-time high last year, data showed Wednesday, spawning concerns the country could become more vulnerable to the slumping global economy. The ratio measuring Korea’s reliance on trade for growth stood at a record 113.2 percent last year, up from 105.2 percent in 2010, according to data by the central bank. The ratio measures the value of exports and imports against gross national income.The ratio, which largely hovered near the 80-percent range in the mid-

Aug. 1, 2012

S. Korea's July trade surplus narrows on falling exports

South Korea's trade surplus shrank from a month earlier in July as exports slipped at a greater pace than imports, the government said Wednesday.The country's trade balance came to $2.7 billion in the black last month, compared with a surplus of $4.96 billion in June, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.Still, July marks the sixth consecutive month the country has posted a trade surplus

Aug. 1, 2012

S. Korea's consumer price growth slows in July

South Korea's consumer prices grew at a slower pace last month amid government efforts to keep inflationary pressure down, a report showed Wednesday.The country's consumer price index rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier in June, compared with a 2.2 percent on-year gain the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea.July's reading marks the first time since July 2009 that inflatio

Aug. 1, 2012

Ruling party chief renews debate on extending retirement age

Hwang calls for introduction of peak salary systemThe ruling Saenuri Party chairman Hwang Woo-yea said on Tuesday that his party would take steps to obligate all businesses to set the retirement age at 60.At present, companies are only recommended to set the retirement age at 60. The average retirement age for local firms with over 300 employees is 57.4, and people actually retire at age 53 on average, according to the Korea Labor Institute.“We will initially push for extending the legal retirem

July 31, 2012

KDB drops plan to buy HSBC retail branches

The Korea Development Bank said Tuesday it dropped the plan to take over HSBC’s 11 retail branches in Korea. KDB said in a statement that it agreed with HSBC to stop acquisition talks due to disagreements over employment conditions, and to no longer seek to buy the U.K.-based bank’s retail operations here.The state-run bank had begun talks with HSBC in April to acquire its local retail branches in the form of purchase and assumption, which does not involve a transfer of money as KDB was to take

July 31, 2012

Korean cars on roll in Africa, Middle East

Shipments of South Korean vehicles to Africa and the Middle East soared nearly 35 percent in the first half of this year, helping the regions emerge as the country’s biggest markets, industry data showed Tuesday.South Korea’s five carmakers led by Hyundai Motor Co. exported $1.28 billion worth of vehicles to African nations in the January-June period, up 34.4 percent from a year ago, according to data compiled by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.The other companies are Kia Motors C

MobilityJuly 31, 2012

World’s largest floating solar plant starts work

The world’s largest solar plant on water went into operation on Tuesday, paving the way for the commercialization of a new solar energy provider, said Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-water. The state-run water service company organized the three-year project in August 2008, and Korean industrial solutions firm LSIS undertook the plant construction in 2011 on Hapcheon Dam in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. “K-water plans to form partnerships with private firms for the standardization and o

TechnologyJuly 31, 2012

Foreign ownership of Hyundai Motor, Samsung growing

Foreign investors are cutting back their stakes in major Korean companies amid a sliding stock market hard hit by the European debt crisis.But they are expanding ownership at the nation’s top two conglomerates Samsung and Hyundai, Chaebol.com, a website tracking Korean conglomerate owners, revealed Tuesday. According to the research firm, 93 affiliates of the nation’s top 10 conglomerates saw their combined foreign ownership decline from 20.19 percent in March to 19.79 percent this month. The 0.

IndustryJuly 31, 2012