Air traffic grows by 5.8% in Q1

Passenger aircraft traffic over South Korea rose 5.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on a growing number of people taking international and domestic flights, the government said Tuesday.The number of passenger planes taking off and landing at local airports and those overflying the country reached 132,000 aircraft in the three month period, from 123,000 a year earlier, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said.The tally represents all private jets that flew withi

April 10, 2012

SMEs growing driving force behind Korea’s export growth to Europe

Trend expected to follow in U.S. on back of FTAKorea’s long-standing economic landscape, in which big conglomerates have been the main drivers of export growth, appears to be gradually changing as smaller firms contribute more to increasing Korea’s outbound shipments.About 83,000 second and third-tier Korean suppliers and manufacturers, with fewer than 300 employees and capital of less than 8 billion won ($7 million), exported goods worth some $9.6 billion to Europe in 2011, according to the Sma

April 10, 2012

Dental X-rays linked to brain tumors: U.S. study

People who get regular dental X-rays are more likely to suffer a common type of brain tumor, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, suggesting that yearly exams may not be best for most patients.The study in the U.S. journal Cancer showed people diagnosed with meningioma who reported having a yearly bitewing exam were 1.4 times to 1.9 times as likely as a healthy control group to have developed such tu

TechnologyApril 10, 2012

Mechanic takes motorized couch for a spin

A New Zealand mechanic who designed a motorized couch with a top speed of 37 mph said his creation has been admired by townspeople, even police officers.Josh Steeg of Hastings said he and some friends took the couch for an Easter spin through Napier as part of a scheme to attract business for his mechanical work and perhaps even the couch itself, Hawkes Bay Today reported Monday."Who knows, someon

TechnologyApril 10, 2012

Parliament likely to have more pro-labor members

More than 20 pro-labor candidates are expected to be elected on Wednesday, worrying South Korea’s business circles, which fear the lawmakers would push for more restrictive legislation. Koreans will elect 300 lawmakers, 246 directly from precincts and 54 through proportional representation, and the number of lawmakers sympathetic with the labor movement is expected to rise to at least 20, up from 15 in previous elections. The local business sectors are expressing mixed expectations. On the one h

April 9, 2012

Windsor sales spike ahead of price hike

Diageo Korea saw a leap in sales of its flagship whiskies last month as wholesalers rushed to boost their stockpiles prior to a price increase, industry figures showed Monday.The shipment volume of Windsor topped 1.1 billion liters in March, up almost 40 percent from the combined volume in the preceding two months. The product is the top-selling whisky in the domestic market. Johnnie Walker Black, another whisky distributed by the Korean unit of the London-based drinks group, also saw an 11.6 pe

IndustryApril 9, 2012

KT&G’s Esse exports top 100 billion units

Overseas sales of KT&G Corp.’s flagship Esse cigarettes have surpassed 100 billion units since its maiden export in 2001, Korea’s largest tobacco firm said Monday.The tally is greater than the country’s yearly cigarette consumption of 90 billion pieces, a company spokesperson noted. Exports reached 21 billion pieces last year alone. The 17-model ultra slim brand has been reigning as the top seller in the local market since 2003, boasting around a 25 percent stake. It is now sold in some 40 count

IndustryApril 9, 2012

Car exports hit record high in March

South Korea’s car exports reached a record high in March, fueled by strong overseas demand for small-sized vehicles and sport utility vehicles, a government report showed Monday.Overseas vehicle shipments surged 18.1 percent on-year to 305,257 units last month, with total domestic production moving up 6.3 percent to 420,759 vehicles, according to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.The ministry said overseas sales were bolstered by 30.4 percent increase in small-sized cars and 17.4 p

MobilityApril 9, 2012

Samsung SNS wins iF packaging design gold

Samsung Network Services and Solutions said Monday that it received the gold award at the 2012 iF packaging design awards in Hannover.The first firm in the country to receive the prize, the company was recognized for its packaging that uses environmentally friendly materials such as reusable paper and ink made of soybean oil, its officials said. Five gold awards were granted by the organization.Instead of unifying the labels of the packaging, it also differentiated the colors depending on the pr

IndustryApril 9, 2012

Hyundai-Kia to hold job fair for suppliers

Hyundai Motors and its affiliate Kia Motors are stepping up their efforts to support subcontractors’ recruiting.The two companies said Monday that they will hold a series of job fairs to hire jobseekers for subcontractors, including auto parts manufacturers, between April 25 and May 10.The automotive job fairs will start at the COEX in Samseong-dong in southern Seoul on April 25. The event in Seoul will run though April 26.The same events are scheduled for provincial cities such as Gwangju and D

MobilityApril 9, 2012

SK struggles to revive ailing Cyworld service

SK Communications recently carried out a corporate revamp as part of last ditch efforts to revive its flagship social networking service Cyworld, which has been hit hard by the entry of Facebook. The Internet business unit of SK Group said Monday that it has scaled down its previous 30 business teams into 24, with a single coordinating body being set up under the leadership of new CEO Lee Joo-sik. “We used to have different teams for different businesses like Cyworld and Nate. Now we have integr

IndustryApril 9, 2012

Competition gets fierce in mobile gaming

Entry of Wemade-Kakao expected to change landscape of the fledgling marketKorea’s mobile gaming industry is expected to see fiercer competition as newcomers Wemade Entertainment and Kakao Talk are set to enter the race, industry sources and an analyst said on Monday.Wemade Entertainment, a listed online gamer, and Kakao Talk, Korea’s renowned mobile messenger, recently announced their strategic partnership in mobile games. Wemade invested 20 billion won ($17.5 million) for about a 6 percent stak

TechnologyApril 9, 2012

Korea says no plan to curb record foreign bond buying

South Korea, which suffered a sudden outflow of capital in 2008, has no plans to curb record purchases of its debt by foreign funds and will sell 30-year bonds aimed at such investors, a Finance Ministry official said. The level of foreign investment is “manageable” and no curbs are planned, Shin Hyung-chul, director general of the treasury bureau at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, said in an April 5 interview in Gwacheon, south of Seoul. The government will “gradually increase” issuance o

April 9, 2012