Cigarette price hike fans inflation jitters

Philip Morris International Korea’s recent plan to raise its cigarette prices is fueling concerns over inflation as rumors swirl that its bigger rival KT&G will soon follow suit. The Korean unit of the U.S. tobacco giant is to slap an unexpected price increase averaging 6.8 percent starting Feb. 10 to offset rising raw material and labor costs.The hike, the first in seven years, will send the prices of Marlboro, Parliament and Lark to 2,700 won ($2.4) a pack from the current 2,500 won. Virginia

IndustryFeb. 2, 2012

LG targets 35 million units in smartphone sales this year

LG Electronics said Wednesday that it will set a 35-million-unit smartphone sales target this year, with plans for smartphones to grow to 70 percent of its handset portfolio.In an earnings briefing at its headquarters in Yeouido, its chief financial officer Jung Do-hyun said the company will produce less feature phones and focus on the premium smartphone lineup, especially smartphones that run on the fourth generation Long Term Evolution network.“We will not make feature phones if profits aren’t

IndustryFeb. 2, 2012

[Hynix swings to red in Q4 on weak demand]

Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world's second-largest maker of computer memory chips, said Thursday that it swung to the red in the fourth quarter as memory chip prices fell on slowing demand for computers.Net loss amounted to 239.9 billion won (US$213.1 million) in the October-December period, a tur

IndustryFeb. 2, 2012

[Apple loses bid to ban Samsung tablet PC, mobile phone]

Apple Inc. lost a bid in a Munich court for a preliminary ban on sales of Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy 10.1N and Galaxy Nexus mobile phone. The Munich Regional Court rejected the motion in a case where Apple invoked a patent granted last year protecting some technology related to touch scre

TechnologyFeb. 2, 2012

GSK’s pneumococcal vaccine OK’d for wider age group

 GlaxoSmithKline Korea Ltd. said Wednesday that Korea’s drug agency has extended approval for its hot-selling pneumococcal vaccine to be used in babies born premature at 27 to 28 weeks and children up to 5 years old.The expanded approval makes Synflorix the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine with posology for premature babies in Korea, the local unit of the U.K.-based corporation said. The vaccine was first cleared by the Korea Food & Drug Administration in 2010 for the prevention of invasive

IndustryFeb. 1, 2012

[Korean auto sales down 1.7% in Jan.]

Korea’s five automakers led by market leader Hyundai Motor Co. on Wednesday reported a 1.7 percent drop in January sales due to a slump in domestic demand.The combined sales of the carmakers came to 617,506 vehicles in January, compared with 626,806 units sold a year earlier, according to data released by the companies.Their domestic shipments reached a combined 96,448 units last month, down 20 percent from 120,557 a year earlier. Overseas sales, however, including cars exported from South Korea

MobilityFeb. 1, 2012

[Lotte opens first overseas duty-free shop in Indonesia]

Lotte Duty Free, a leading Korean retail operator, said Wednesday that it has opened its first overseas shop at Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.The duty-free shop covers 900 square-meters and will sell various cosmetics, perfume, liquor and tobacco products to travelers using the airport located about 20 kilometers west of Jakarta.The duty-free operator, which is part of the Hotel Lotte chain, said it has also set up an interactive screen featuring Korean pop stars to give its s

IndustryFeb. 1, 2012

[Concerns raised over card firms’ asset jump]

Korean credit card companies’ assets have grown to alarming levels due to their proliferating competition, industry data showed Wednesday, raising the specter of a bubble.The total assets of credit card firms stood at 79.3 trillion won ($70.4 billion) as of the end of 2011, surpassing the 78.9 trillion won tallied in 2003, a year after the country’s economy was hard-hit by a credit card bubble, according to the data. Their assets dropped as low as 65 trillion won in 2008, but soon rebounded by n

Feb. 1, 2012

[Tire production, sales edge up in 2011]

Production and sales of Korean tiremakers grew slightly last year amid a deepening economic slump at home and abroad, a trade association said Wednesday.According to the Korea Tire Manufacturers Association, Korean tire manufacturers led by Hankook Tire Co. and Kumho Tire Co. produced 97,694,000 units in 2011, up 2.5 percent from the previous year.Sales rose 1.6 percent on-year to 96,942,000 units last year.In the domestic market, a total of 9,997,000 units for original equipment were sold last

IndustryFeb. 1, 2012

[EU antitrust regulator probes Samsung for abuse of mobile phone patents]

Samsung Electronics Co. is being probed by European Union antitrust regulators over licensing of patents to other mobile-phone manufacturers. The European Commission said it will investigate whether Samsung broke a 1998 commitment to license any standard essential patents for phones on “fair, reasonable and non- discriminatory terms.” It acted after Samsung claimed last year in European courts that rivals infringed its patents, the EU said in a statement. Regulators have increased scrutiny of in

TechnologyFeb. 1, 2012

[Savings banks’ household loans top W10tr]

Sharp rise in credit loans in non-banking sector raises alarm bellsThe amount of loans extended by Korea’s savings banks to households topped 10 trillion won ($8.9 billion) in 2011. Preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service indicates that savings banks, hurt by a string of scandals last year, are moving back toward risky lending. It is the first time that the outstanding loans by savings banks to local households surpassed 10 trillion won ― a sharp increase from 7 trillion won in O

Feb. 1, 2012

[Volunteers in training to serve at Yeosu Expo]

A total of 15,870 volunteers including an 84-year-old senior citizen, college freshmen, soon-to-be discharged soldiers and people from various countries are in training to work at the Expo 2012 Yeosu.Some 45,000 people signed up to volunteer during the application period between April and June last year. They went through the initial screening in August and interviews from September to November in a number of cities including Yeosu, Suncheon, Gwangyang, Seoul, Busan and Jeju. To give a chance to

Feb. 1, 2012