The Korea Herald

Analysts split over BOK's May rate decision

Analysts are divided over whether South Korea's central bank will cut the key interest rate for May, but more experts are betting on a rate freeze, citing prospects for the economic recovery, a poll showed Tuesday.Out of 23 analysts, 12 experts predicted that the Bank of Korea (BOK) will freeze the benchmark seven-day repo rate at 2.75 percent for the seventh straight month on Thursday, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.The remaining 11 analyst

May 7, 2013

Analysts split over BOK's May rate decision

Seoul shares open lower on weak momentum

South Korean stocks opened lower on Tuesday due to weak growth momentum on the local market, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 4.01 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,957.47 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech shares traded bearish, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics falling 0.92 percent and top chipmaker SK hynix losing 0.69 percent. LG Electronics moved down 0.35 percent.Carmakers also lost ground, with No. 1 industry player Hyundai Motor falling 1.

May 7, 2013

Samsung responsible for recent hydrofluoric acid leak: gov't

Samsung Electronics Co. is partly responsible for last week's highly poisonous hydrofluoric acid leak at its main chip plant in southwestern South Korea, a government official said Tuesday.For the second time in just three months, a small amount of diluted hydrofluoric acid, a colorless acute poison that can damage the lungs and bones and even affect the nervous system, leaked at the semiconductor plant in Hwaseong, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on Thursday, injuring three subcontract workers.Af

IndustryMay 7, 2013

Korean banks eye Asian riches

As the nation’s low interest rate has contracted their profits, Korean banks are targeting rich people in Southeast Asia and China as new income sources.Hana Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea are the frontrunners in the trend.Hana Bank launched its first Indonesian private banking center in Jakarta on May 2, in addition to its private banking centers in China and Hong Kong.The Jakarta center has one Korean manager with 10 years’ experience in private banking at home and is a certified financ

May 6, 2013

[Graphic News] IPTV subscribers surpass 7m mark

The number of Internet Protocol television subscribers surpassed 7 million on Friday, according to the Korea Digital Media Industry Association.Since its first appearance in January 2009, the IPTV penetration rate has been faster than any other paid TV broadcasting such as cable TV and satellite broadcasting. It took eight years for cable TV to pass 7 million subscriptions and nine years for satellite broadcasting to reach 3 million. Analysts said the fast rise in IPTV subscriptions is largely t

May 6, 2013

[Graphic News] IPTV subscribers surpass 7m mark

[Power Korea] Strategic infrastructure development behind Korea’s economic success

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles on infrastructure as part of its second installment of Power Korea. Korea’s success story is a 60-year-old tale written by not one, but many who worked to build one of the world’s most powerful nations from the ashes of war. This series features the development and global competitiveness of Korea’s infrastructure. The special articles were made in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This is the first part of the

May 6, 2013

[Power Korea] Strategic infrastructure development behind Korea’s economic success

Korea to export infrastructure development know-how

Korea will eye overseas infrastructure development projects, armed with local experience and know-how accrued over the past half century, the nation’s chief construction policymaker said. “Korea is one of the few countries that have risen from recipient to donor in just half a century,” Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Minister Suh Seoung-hwan said in a written interview with The Korea Herald. “This rapid growth largely took place in line with strategic infrastructure development, a model whi

May 6, 2013

Korea to export infrastructure development know-how

Nine public financial firms pay better than Samsung

State-run financial companies under the management jurisdiction of the Financial Services Commission are reemerging as firms that offer the best-paying jobs of any industry.Employees at nine public financial companies of the regulatory body received an annual monthly salary of some 87 million won ($79,500) on average last year, more than the average 70 million won at Samsung Electronics, Korea’s biggest company listed on the stock market, according to a public disclosure filing.The nine are Kore

May 6, 2013

SKT invites multicultural children to its ICT museum

By Lee Ji-yoon SK Telecom on Monday invited a group of 20 children from multicultural families to experience many yet-to-be mass marketed communications technologies at its museum in celebration of Children’s Day. The SK Telecom Ubiquitous Museum, or T.um, allows visitors to utilize and interact with some of the world’s state-of-the art technologies. The students of the School of Global Sarang, the nation’s first private elementary school for multi-ethnic children, especially showed keen interes

IndustryMay 6, 2013

SKT invites multicultural children to its ICT museum

LG Chem to start U.S. battery plant in July

LG Chem’s U.S.-based battery plant will start operations this July, marking the end of a long hiatus, the Seoul-based company said on Monday.The plant will start supplying batteries for the Chevrolet Volt hybrid electric car as early as September. “We plan on starting production in July following pilot production and consumer approvals in order to secure high yield and quality,” the company said in statement.The company is focusing on improving the productivity of the plant to eventually expand

IndustryMay 6, 2013

SK Telecom’s daily data traffic tops 1 petabyte

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s leading mobile carrier, said Monday that its daily data transfer topped 1 petabyte in line with the growing use of smartphones and tablet computers in the country. According to SK Telecom, data transfer on its mobile network topped the milestone on April 26, becoming the country’s first mobile operator to set such a record. A petabyte is a measure of data, and one petabyte is a million gigabytes. The figure includes data traffic on the third-generation network, WiFi

TechnologyMay 6, 2013

Korea’s foreign reserves hit 3-month high in April

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves hit a three-month high in April as a weaker U.S. dollar raised the conversion value of non-dollar assets and investment profit rose, the central bank said Monday.The country’s foreign reserves reached $328.8 billion as of end-April, up $1.39 billion from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea .It marked the highest level since the FX reserves hit a record $328.91 billion in January.Foreign reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated

IndustryMay 6, 2013

Korea to ease debts for troubled mortgage holders

South Korea’s financial regulator said Monday it will start a debt relief program from next month for troubled homeowners as part of its key policy plan to ease the record-high household debt amid a faltering property market.The Financial Services Commission, the country’s top financial watchdog, said it will impose the initial loan-to-value ratio to a mortgage even if the price of the house fell due to the sluggish real estate market. The LTV refers to a tool used by banks to restrict the maxim

IndustryMay 6, 2013

Hyundai Heavy wins $700m container ship order

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the nation’s largest shipbuilder, won a $700 million order to build five container ships from China Shipping Container Lines, the company said in a press release on Monday. Under the deal, Hyundai Heavy will deliver the ships starting in latter part of 2014. Each container ship will be 18,400-TEU, the worlds’ largest size, loading 18,400 containers. TEU stands for 20-foot equivalent unit. When it comes to container ship orders this year, the company sealed a $600 millio

IndustryMay 6, 2013

STX creditors likely to agree on rescue plan

Creditors of STX Group tentatively reached a consensus that they will give their “qualified” consent to bailing out ailing units of the shipbuilding giant, the state-run Korea Development Bank said Monday.The main creditor KDB and others held a meeting to discuss whether to accept the proposal from the business group over joint management of several units by creditor banks.Their qualified consent means that the creditors are seeking to inject emergency relief funds into the debt-saddled STX Grou

May 6, 2013

Could the depreciation of the yen really reduce FDI?

With the continued depreciation of the yen, concerns about Japanese investment into Korea have been rising. The rapidly weakening yen was devalued by more than 20 percent against the dollar between October 2012 and March 2013 from 79.03 yen to 94.93 yen per dollar. This is due to Japan’s quantitative easing policy, which has been actively carried out since the Liberal Democratic Party took power and which aims for an inflation rate of 2 percent.In the short term, there is no need to worry about

BusinessMay 6, 2013

Could the depreciation of the yen really reduce FDI?

French yogurt brand growing fast in Korean market

It has been four years since French food product maker Danone entered Korea and its Activia, the world’s best-selling yogurt brand, is already the second-best-selling drinking yogurt in local hypermarkets after Namyang’s Bulgaris.Last year, Danone joined hands with Korean fresh food maker Pulmuone and is aggressively expanding distribution channels here where home delivery accounts for 40 percent of the yogurt market.“We plan to gain a firm foothold for Activia in the Korean market this year in

May 6, 2013

College students face risk of heart diseases due to binge drinking

Students on college campuses do not fear pulling all-nighters at parties and drinking a large amount of alcohol, assuming that their youth may protect them from the destructive effects of their lifestyle. However, according to a study by researchers from the University of Illinois, people in their 20s are not immune to heart disease caused by binge drinking.“Binge drinking is neurotoxic and our data supports that there may be serious cardiovascular consequences in young adults,” said professor S

TechnologyMay 6, 2013

College students face risk of heart diseases due to binge drinking

Seoul shares down 0.22 pct despite ECB rate cut

South Korean stocks closed 0.22 percent lower Monday despite the European Central Bank's (ECB) stimulus measure as investors were at odds over its impact on the global economy down the road, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 4.23 points to finish at 1,961.48. Trading volume was low at 291.7 million shares worth 3.9 trillion won (US$3.56 billion) with gainers outnumbering decliners 447 to 356. "Seoul s

May 6, 2013

Seoul shares up 0.34 pct in late-morning trade

South Korean stocks traded 0.34 percent higher late Monday morning on gains in builders and logistics companies, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved up 6.7 points to 1,972.41 as of 11:20 a.m. Builders led the market gain, with Hyundai Engineering & Construction adding 3.34 percent and Daewoo Engineering & Construction climbing 1.74 percent. GS Engineering & Construction moved up 2.57 percent. Logistics firms also gathered ground, with CJ Korea Expres

May 6, 2013