Hyundai develops world's first automated gearshift that reads traffic ahead

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday that it has developed a self-controlling gearshift that measures traffic ahead and predicts optimized gearing, which it said is the first of its kind in the world. While existing smart drive modes work by learning the pattern of the drivers, the new information and communication technology-connected transmission system recognizes road situations and automatically changes gears for speed, the automaker said. The new technology will be adopted in upcoming models

MobilityFeb. 20, 2020

Hanjin Group joins hands with startup accelerator Plug and Play

Hanjin KAL, the holding firm of Hanjin Group which owns the country’s largest air carrier Korean Air, said Thursday that it has partnered with US startup accelerator Plug and Play for business diversification. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play has previously clinched development partnerships with global information and communications technology firms including Google, PayPal, Dropbox and Logitech. It has also worked with Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Singapore Airlines and Americ

MobilityFeb. 20, 2020

KT&G most lucrative firm among Korea’s top 30 groups: report

South Korea’s tobacco giant KT&G is the most profitable company among the nation’s top 30 conglomerates, while Hanjin Group and Doosan Group, on the contrary, are in urgent need of improving their financial health, data showed Thursday. Local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute surveyed the net profit margin of the nation’s top 30 companies between 2008 and 2018 using data submitted to the Korea Fair Trade Commission. According to the survey, the total revenue generat

IndustryFeb. 20, 2020

Mirae Asset Daewoo’s overseas ETF wrap account sales surpass W100b

South Korean brokerage firm Mirae Asset Daewoo said Thursday its wrap account attracted a record net inflow of 100 billion won ($83.4 million). The fund is the first in Korea to surpass the milestone as a wrap account investing in overseas exchange-traded funds, the company said. A rise in investors’ interest in overseas stock markets and investment in ETFs appear to have driven the increase in sales of Mirae’s Global X Portfolio Wrap Account, it added. Unlike general index inve

MarketFeb. 20, 2020

LG Household to buy Physiogel's biz right for US, Asia markets

LG Household & Health Care Ltd., a major South Korean cosmetics company, said Thursday it has signed a deal to acquire Physiogel business rights for the Asian and North American regions from British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline Plc.  LG Household will finalize the deal with GlaxoSmithKline to take over the brand's business license for 192.3 billion won ($160 million) within the first half of 2020, the company said in a statement.  "The Physiogel brand has not advan

IndustryFeb. 20, 2020

Preorders for Samsung's Galaxy S20 smartphones start in S. Korea

Preorders for Samsung Electronics Co.'s new flagship smartphone line started in South Korea on Thursday, with local mobile carriers rolling out various promotions to attract customers. Samsung said preorders for the Galaxy S20 smartphones will run through next Wednesday at online and offline stores in South Korea, with the official launch of new handsets scheduled for March 6. The Galaxy S20 series, which was unveiled last week in San Francisco, comes in three models -- the S20, S20 Plus an

IndustryFeb. 20, 2020

Samsung C&T secures W1.15tr power plant deal in UAE

Samsung C&T, the construction arm of Samsung Group, said Wednesday it clinched a 1.15 trillion won ($960 million) power plant deal in the United Arab Emirates. According to the company, it won the order placed by Emirates Water and Electricity Co. to build a 2,400-megawatt combined cycle power plant in Fujairah, some 300 kilometers northeast of Abu Dhabi. The envisioned power plant, under the project Fujairah F3, is expected to provide power for 380,000 homes in the region. Construction i

IndustryFeb. 20, 2020

S. Korea's trade with Vietnam up 16.5% annually since FTA

South Korea's trade with Vietnam has expanded 16.5 percent annually since the two countries implemented a free trade agreement in 2015, data showed Thursday. The combined trade volume between the two countries reached $69.2 billion in 2019, compared with $37.6 billion posted in 2015, according to the Korea Customs Service. South Korea and Vietnam implemented the FTA in December 2015, after kicking off their first negotiations in 2012. Over the cited period, South Korea's trade with China, t

EconomyFeb. 20, 2020

S. Korea goes all-out to boost exports amid new coronavirus spread

SEJONG -- South Korea said Thursday it plans to utilize all necessary measures to help local firms weather the economic fallout from the new coronavirus. In January, South Korea's exports fell 6.1 percent on-year, but when measured by working days, they increased 4.8 percent, marking the first on-year increase in 14 months. The January figure is being seen as a sign of recovery. Outbound shipments nosedived 10.3 percent in 2019 amid a prolonged trade feud between the United States and China

EconomyFeb. 20, 2020

Watchdog chief says he feels sorry over Lime fiasco

The head of South Korea's financial watchdog said Thursday he feels sorry for the controversy surrounding the suspension of fund redemption by the country's largest hedge fund Lime Asset Management Co.  Yoon Suk-heun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said in a parliamentary session that he will help the fund come up with and implement its redemption plan.  The comments came as the watchdog prepares to launch an inspection into Lime's suspension of fund redemption ear

MarketFeb. 20, 2020

Refiners, chemical firms feared to take further hit from virus

The new coronavirus outbreak is expected to deal a fresh blow to South Korean oil refiners and chemical makers already reeling from worsening profits, industry sources said Thursday. The pessimistic outlook comes as South Korean refineries' exports to China, their largest overseas market, are projected to drop sharply because of the COVID-19 shock. South Korean refiners resort to exports more than domestic demand for their sales. China is estimated to account for nearly 20 percent of their to

EconomyFeb. 20, 2020

S. Korea's economic growth nearly halves in past 2 decades

South Korea's economic growth rate has nearly halved in the past two decades due to low productivity and regulations, a local think tank said Thursday. South Korea's economy grew an average of 5 percent between 2001 and 2005 before falling to 2.7 percent during the 2016-2019 period, the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) said in a statement. South Korea ranked fifth among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 36 mostly rich and advanced nations, in terms

EconomyFeb. 20, 2020

S. Korean producer prices edge up in Jan.

South Korea's producer prices inched up in January from the prior month due to the increased cost of farm and fishery goods, central bank data showed Thursday. The producer price index for all commodities and services stood at 103.93 last month, up 0.2 percent from December, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. From the same month a year earlier, the country's producer prices climbed 1 percent. Producer prices serve as a key barometer of future inflation. The BOK said prices

EconomyFeb. 20, 2020

[Graphic News] COVID-19 death toll surpasses that of SARS

　The new coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of last year has now killed more than 2,000 people and spread around the world. 　The latest figures from China show there were more than 74,185 people infected in the country as of Wednesday. 　SARS was also a coronavirus, and that outbreak started in a wet market too. It infected 8,098 people and killed 774 between November 2002 and July 2003.

TechnologyFeb. 19, 2020

Korea in for a long fight against virus: experts

A series of novel coronavirus cases without epidemiological ties to previous patients have been reported in Korea in the past four days, with one believed to be linked to at least 15 others. A Korean woman, 61, who started having symptoms as early as Feb. 7, continued with her daily tasks until she was found to be infected Tuesday.  Over the 11 intervening days, authorities say she came into close contact with at least 166 people -- 49 of them health workers -- all of whom are now quaran

TechnologyFeb. 19, 2020

Hyundai Motor chairman steps down as board chair

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo will step down as the chair of the board, as he was not reappointed as an internal director at the firm’s board meeting, the automaker said Wednesday. Chung, who had been the board chair since 1999, will retain the positions of Hyundai Motor’s unregistered executive and Hyundai Mobis’ registered director. He has been stepping away from day-to-day management and has not attended board meetings since 2018. Upon the departure of Chu

MobilityFeb. 19, 2020

Lotte declares green campaign for affiliates

Retail and travel giant Lotte said Wednesday it has prepared a new environment friendly campaign for all of its affiliates, under a five-year plan to reduce food waste, minimize packaging and reuse resources. Lotte Holdings, and four of its business units -- food, retail, chemical/construction/manufacturing and tourism/service/finance -- will take part in the project. Lotte has three main action plans: establishing a plastic recycling system; expanding the use of environment friendly materia

IndustryFeb. 19, 2020

Iran warns Korean tech firms: reports

South Korean tech giants including Samsung Electronics may face punitive measures by Iran in relation to business decisions that may have been influenced by US sanctions, reports and industry watchers said Tuesday. According to news reports, Iran could refuse entry of Samsung executives and staff and impose a partial ban on registration of Samsung phones with the Iranian mobile network, according to Mohammad Jafar Na’nakar, head of the legal department of the Iranian Ministry of Informati

TechnologyFeb. 19, 2020

[Chew on IT] Samsung chips vs. SK hynix chips: How do they fare against each other?

Most South Koreans are well aware that the country has the world’s two biggest memory chip giants -- Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. As of the third quarter of last year, the combined market share of the two Korean chipmakers for DRAM, worldwide, stood at 74.4 percent, according to data from market researcher TrendForce. For NAND flash, together they accounted for 45.2 percent of the global market. But not everyone has a clear understanding of the product details that enabled these K

TechnologyFeb. 19, 2020

Fiscal chief seeks to boost spending amid COVID-19 fallout

Responding to public anxiety over prolonged fallout of the novel coronavirus, the government distinctly turned to all-out countermeasures, marking a turn from its early optimism. But its policy direction that people should resume consumption has raised controversy, as the country continued to see additional cases of infection this week. “(The government) is mobilizing all available policy actions under the grave awareness that (the given circumstances) correspond to an economic emer

MarketFeb. 19, 2020