[Weekender] Foreign vacations are back, but come with hefty price tags

Attention travel-starved Koreans. The cost of air travel is rising, with more upward pressure building from high jet fuel prices and soaring tourism demand. If you are fixed on an overseas vacation, don’t wait too long to book it, experts say. “Airlines are selling their flight tickets well and there is a supply shortage. We are in a situation where prices are forced to go up,” an Asiana Airlines official told The Korea Herald. “The number of flights in operation has

MobilityApril 23, 2022

S. Korea requests MSCI to put its stock market on watch list for developed market status

South Korea’s top economic policymaker has requested the global index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International to place the country’s stock market on the watch list for the developed market status during its review in June, his office said Saturday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki made the remarks during his meeting with senior officials from MSCI in New York on Friday (local time) as South Korea is pushing again to win the MSCI developed market status. MSCI has classified the So

EconomyApril 23, 2022

[Interactive] National brand positively impacts foreign buyers’ purchases of Korean goods

　Nearly 7 in 10 foreign buyers think that South Korea’s national brand is having a positive impact on their purchases of products from Asia‘s fourth-largest economy, a poll showed. 　According to the survey of 213 foreign buyers, 72.9 percent of the respondents replied that their imports of South Korean goods have been affected positively by the country’s national brand. 　Slightly over 25.4 percent said South Korean products remind them of high quality, followed by reasonable

BusinessApril 23, 2022

KB outpaces banking rivals in Q1 with record earnings

South Korea’s KB Financial Group outperformed its local rivals, posting a record net profit for the first three months of the year as the banking industry’s overall performance was bolstered by a surge in interest and fee revenue, regulatory filings showed Friday. KB’s net income gained 14.4 percent on-year to 1.45 trillion won ($1.17 billion) in the January-March period. Operating income gained 8.9 percent on-year to 1.9 trillion won in the cited period. Interest income inc

MarketApril 22, 2022

Naver ditches acquisition plans for SM Entertainment

South Korean tech giant Naver said Friday it is not joining a bidding war for SM Entertainment, the K-pop powerhouse behind EXO and aespa. “The company is looking into various options to bolster business competitiveness, but it has decided not to participate in the deal,” Naver’s Chief Financial Officer Kim Nan-sun said in a regulatory filing. The statement comes after months of rampant speculation that crosstown rivals Naver and Kakao had been competing to acquire a 19.21

MarketApril 22, 2022

Seoul stocks dip on hawkish US Fed

South Korean stocks retreated Friday as the US Federal Reserve chief signaled interest rates would be aggressively raised. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 23.5 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 2,704.71 points. The key stock index gained 0.32 percent from a week ago. Daily trading volume was moderate at about 1.21 billion shares worth some 11.9 trillion won ($9.6 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 550 to 313. Inst

MarketApril 22, 2022

Finance minister expresses worries over rebound in home prices

SEJONG -- Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki expressed worries over the nation’s real estate market during his stay in Washington, D.C. for international ministerial meetings, saying that home prices are rebounding. Hong said Friday (Korean time) that the government had failed to tame housing prices during the early part of his term since December 2018, when he took office, despite a variety of policy attempts. “(Later), I was encouraged by the situation that ho

EconomyApril 22, 2022

Posco pours W1tr to ramp up production of eco-friendly electrical steel

Posco said Friday that it has kicked off construction of a new 1 trillion won ($804 million) electrical steel manufacturing plant in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, in response to growing demand for the eco-friendly steel in vehicles and home appliances.  The steel giant said based on its 40-year expertise in producing electrical steels, the new plant will be producing 300,000 tons of high-efficient, non-oriented electrical steels annually, which are used as core materials in rotating ma

IndustryApril 22, 2022

Stock settlements nose-dive 32% in Q1 amid slumping market

The value of stock settlements in South Korea plunged nearly 32 percent in the first quarter of the year as the stock market remained in the doldrums, a local clearing house said Friday. The Korea Securities Depository (KSD) said stocks worth 1.85 trillion won ($1.49 billion) were settled through the agency per day in the January-March period, down 31.8 percent from a year earlier. Yet the first-quarter figure was up 4.6 percent from three months earlier. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Pric

EconomyApril 22, 2022

Hyundai Motor Group wins 17 iF design awards this year

Hyundai Motor Group said Friday it has received 17 awards at this year's International Forum (iF) Design Award competition, proving the "excellence" of the South Korean carmaker's models. Hyundai Motor Co., Hyundai's independent Genesis brand and Hyundai's smaller affiliate Kia Corp. obtained 17 awards in the five categories of product, professional concept, interior architecture, communication and user interface, the group said in a statement. In the product segment, Hyundai's Staria

IndustryApril 22, 2022

Hyundai Mobis Q1 net income down 13.7% to W521b

Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's biggest auto parts maker, said Friday its first-quarter net profit fell 14 percent from a year earlier due to a chip shortage and high manufacturing costs. Net profit for the three months ended in March fell to 520.98 billion won ($419 million) from 603.33 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. "The quarterly net income fell as lack of semiconductors parts drove down vehicle production, higher raw materials prices pushed up automotive

IndustryApril 22, 2022

Finance minister vows policy efforts to improve fiscal health

South Korea's top economic policymaker has said the government will continue to make policy efforts to strengthen fiscal soundness as the country's national debt has grown at a fast pace during the COVID-19 pandemic, his office said Friday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki made the remarks during his meeting with Roberto Sifon-Arevalo, sovereign managing director of global credit appraiser S&P Global, in Washington D.C. on Thursday (local time). In the meeting, the two discussed South Korea's

EconomyApril 22, 2022

Growth of land prices slows in Q1 amid tumbling trading

Land prices in South Korea rose at a slower clip in the first quarter of 2022 from three months earlier as transactions tanked, data showed Friday. Land prices in Asia's fourth-largest economy inched up 0.91 percent on-year in the January-March period, down from a 1.03 percent increase in the last quarter of 2021, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Korea Real Estate Board. It was a tad lower than the 0.96 percent on-year hike recorded during the same period

EconomyApril 22, 2022

Seoul shares open steeply lower on hawkish Fed

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Friday as the US Federal Reserve chief signaled interest rates would be aggressively raised. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) retreated 29.17 points, or 1.07 percent, to trade at 2,699.04 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks got off to a lackluster start, tracking overnight Wall Street losses. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite shed more than 2 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped some 1 percent. Fed Chair Jerome

MarketApril 22, 2022

Sales of derivatives-tied securities drop in 2021

Sales of derivatives-linked securities in South Korea decreased in 2021 largely as investors shunned the risky investment tools amid the tightened regulations, data showed Friday. The combined value of equity-linked securities (ELS) and derivatives-linked securities (DLS) came to 84.7 trillion won ($72.1 billion) last year, down 4.3 trillion won from 2020, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The end-2021 figure marks the lowest since 2014, when the comparable numb

EconomyApril 22, 2022

Korean Air chief says Asiana takeover to enhance bilateral partnership with US

The head of South Korea’s largest air carrier said Thursday that the company‘s acquisition of its domestic rival Asiana Airlines will contribute to enhancing the bilateral economic relationship between South Korea and the United States, expressing hope for Washington’s approval of the merger. “We are committed to increasing our activity in the US given the positive environment and we will continue to be a major contributor to the US-Korea economic relationship,” sa

IndustryApril 21, 2022

[Market Eye] Yoon agonizes over tech policy as chip arms race intensifies

The incoming government to be led by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is at a crossroads over how its policy support to nurture the domestic chip industry will take shape, as the global chip arms race and state-led support intensifies. On Thursday, presidential transition committee deputy spokesperson Kim Gi-heung told reporters that the committee was briefed about a proposal to establish a state-run research hub, tentatively named Nano Semiconductor Research Institute. Kim, however, said the co

TechnologyApril 21, 2022

[KH Explains] Like Tesla, Hyundai bets on software updates, but legal issue remains hurdle

Just like smartphones or any other tech devices, vehicles also receive software for new versions from their manufacturers via OTA -- Over The Air -- updates. Software updates are a significant part of the connected car experience because they include the latest feature enhancements, such as autonomous driving, as well as crucial security patches. Tesla has been offering OTA updates to all its cars since 2012. Rivals such as Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have also been quickly penetrating

MobilityApril 21, 2022

[Photo News] Moon's Last Appointment

President Moon Jae-in hands Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong a certificate of appointment as the chief of the nation’s central bank at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Thursday. Rhee, the former director of the Asia and Pacific department at the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, was nominated last month by Moon to succeed former BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol, whose term ended on March 31. The high-profile official nomination was Moon’s last before he leaves office on May 10. Rhee&rsquo

EconomyApril 21, 2022

Posco’s eco-friendly steel brand gets international accreditation

Posco said its eco-friendly steel brand received certification from Norwegian classification society Det Norske Veritas. DNV provides testing, certification and technical advisory services to the energy value chain including renewables, oil and gas and energy management. DNV signed a memorandum of understanding to issue a material type approval on Posco’s Greenable brand of steel materials certifying its performance and quality on March 31 at the steelmaker’s headquarters in Seoul.

IndustryApril 21, 2022