Korea's won 4th-best performer among major 20 currencies

The South Korean won gained 1.4 percent last year to the U.S. dollar, becoming the fourth-best performer among major 20 currencies, data showed on Wednesday.The local currency closed at 1,055.4 won to the greenback on Tuesday, up 15.2 won from the quotation posted at the end of 2012.According to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea, the euro advanced by the most of 4.6 percent to the U.S. dollar last year, followed by the Chinese yuan which gained 2.8 percent, and the British pound with a 1.6

Jan. 1, 2014

S. Korea's trade surplus surges to record high in 2013

South Korea's trade surplus widened to a new high of $44.19 billion in 2013 as its exports grew at a steady rate while imports dwindled, the government said Wednesday.In 2013, the country's outbound shipments came to US$559.72 billion, up 2.2 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Imports slipped 0.8 percent on-year to $515.53 billion over the cited period.Exports in 2013 also marked the highest in the country's history. The previous record of $5

Jan. 1, 2014

Price of natural gas rise by 5.8%

   The price of natural gas will be raised an average 5.8 percent from Jan. 1 to reflect a recent hike in import prices, the government said Tuesday.    The price of liquefied natural gas supplied by the Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) will be raised by 6.1 percent for the industrial sector, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.    "The rate hike comes as the country urgently needs to secure enough supply to meet growing demands for gas from the suspension of (three) nuclear reactors,

Dec. 31, 2013

Samsung to top TV market for 8th year

Samsung Electronics is expected to maintain the global top TV manufacturer that sold the most number of flat-screen TVs for the eight consecutive year, according to a source.The Korean tech giant topped the list of global TV manufacturers with the largest market share of 25.5 percent as of the third quarter of last year, according to international market research firm DisplaySearch. “Samsung retained its leadership in last year’s TV market with the largest market share with ease,” an official cl

Dec. 30, 2013

Hyundai Heavy to launch ship design unit

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, announced Monday that it will launch Hyundai Engineering & Technology, the group’s new affiliate for design and inspection, in early January.Established through a joint investment by Hyundai Heavy, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, Hyundai E&T will initially focus on shipbuilding and gradually phase into plants, electronics, construction equipment and other non-shipbuilding industries, according to the company.The

Dec. 30, 2013

Overseas construction orders reach $65b in 2013

Overseas construction orders clenched by South Korean builders last year were the second highest in the country’s history, with the number of overseas orders and countries placing the orders also increasing, the government said Monday.The total amount of overseas orders reached $65.2 billion, up 0.5 percent from $65.9 billion tallied in 2012, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.The figure is the second highest in the country’s history after $71.6 billion posted in 201

Dec. 30, 2013

Samsung, SK Hynix move to dominate DRAM market

Global chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are tightening their leadership in the memory market as the two have unveiled an advanced memory technology.The two memory manufacturers announced Monday that they successfully developed the 20-nanometer class 8-gigabit low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4) mobile DRAM.With a data transfer speed of 3200 Mbps, the LPDDR4 products unveiled on the day are twice as fast as the chipmakers’ existing LPDDR3, and consume approximately 40 percent less en

Dec. 30, 2013

S. Korea's industrial output remains unchanged on-month in Nov.

South Korea's industrial output remained unchanged on-month in November, as declines in mining and manufacturing offset growth in other areas, a government report showed Monday.According to Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries stayed flat last month compared with a month earlier. This followed a revised 2.1 percent gain tallied for October, which was a turnaround from the previous month's 2.3 percent fall.Production in the service sector inche

Dec. 30, 2013

More rich people expected to pay highest tax rate

The ruling and opposition parties have agreed in principle to lower the bar for who should pay the highest rate of income tax, sources said Sunday, in what would mark the first tax increase for the rich under the government of President Park Geun-hye.Currently, those who make more than 300 million won ($285,000) a year are required to pay the highest rate of income tax, with 38 percent. But the rival parties have reached a consensus in the taxation subcommittee of the parliamentary finance commi

Dec. 29, 2013

Seoul shares likely to move up this week

South Korean stocks are expected to continue their climb this week as the country’s stock market is still deemed undervalued compared with other Asian markets, but gains may be capped by lingering fears of a falling Japanese yen, analysts said Saturday.The country’s key stock index, the KOSPI, closed at 2,002.28 on Friday, up 0.6 percent from a week earlier.“The KOSPI may get a boost from foreign buying, as the local stock market is still undervalued compared with its Asian peers,” said Han Chi-

Dec. 29, 2013

S. Korean exports likely to grow 10 pct on-year in Q1: Eximbank

South Korea's state-run trade bank said Sunday that the country's exports are likely to grow around 10 percent in the first quarter of next year from a year earlier helped by the recovery of the global economy.The Export-Import Bank of Korea said its leading index for the country's exports came in at 135.7 for the January-March period, up 2.8 percent from the previous year.Given that the leading index rose for the fifth straight quarter, Korea's exports are likely to grow around 10 percent in th

Dec. 29, 2013

More rich people expected to pay highest tax rate

The ruling and opposition parties have agreed in principle to lower the bar for who should pay the highest income tax rate, sources said Sunday, in what would mark the first tax increase for the rich under the government of President Park Geun-hye.Currently, those who make more than 300 million won ($285,000) a year are required to pay the highest income tax rate of 38 percent. But the rival parties have reached a consensus in the taxation subcommittee of the parliamentary finance committee that

Dec. 29, 2013

Telecom operators fined for excessive subsidies

Korea Communications Commission said Friday that it would impose a combined fine of 106 billion won ($101 million) on the nation’s three telecom operators, the largest amount of its kind in the telecommunication sector. SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile carrier, was slapped with 56 billion won, KT with 29.7 billion won and LG Uplus with 20.7 billion won in fines for providing undue subsidies to attract customers from May to October, according to the telecom regulator. According to the surv

Dec. 27, 2013

Job seekers favor Samsung Electronics, Nexon: poll

South Korea's male job seekers are most interested in Samsung Electronics Co., while women are looking mostly at Nexon Co., the country's No. 1 gamemaker, for a career, a poll showed Friday.According to the data by the leading online job search portal JobKorea, 12 percent of its male members included the world's largest smartphone maker in their job basket, while 7.8 percent of its female members chose Nexon.Around 29,000 men and 31,900 women participated in the poll, the company said.Nexon came

Dec. 27, 2013

Korean manufacturers' confidence for Jan. inches up

Business sentiment among South Korean manufacturers inched up for January from a three-month low in December as the local economy shows signs of improvement, the central bank said Friday.The index that gauges manufacturers' outlook on business conditions reached 79 for January, up from 78 recorded for December, according to a monthly survey from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The index measures manufacturers' expectations for the coming month.A reading below the benchmark 100 means pessimists outnumbe

Dec. 27, 2013