Seoul shares close lower amid tapering uncertainties

South Korean stocks closed slightly lower Tuesday as investors were divided over the U.S. Fed’s future moves, as some anticipate that it may accelerate the tapering of quantitative easing, analysts said. The Korean won closed lower against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 2.85 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,946.07. Trading volume was low at 237.8 million shares worth 3.36 trillion won ($3.18 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 466 to 327.Analysts said Seoul

Jan. 14, 2014

KORES refinances Boleo mining project in Mexico

Korea Resources Corp., the state-run mineral resources explorer and developer, has recently refinanced its debt-ridden Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project in Mexico in a debt-for-equity swap, the company said in a press release Monday.“The KORES-led Korean consortium agreed to the $938 million deal. The agreement will contribute not only to normalizing the project and but also to halving the firm’s debt ratio to 197 percent,” KORES chief executive Koh Jung-sik said. The consortium, which holds a 90

Jan. 14, 2014

S. Korea logs record-high trade surplus in 2013: customs data

South Korea logged a record-high trade surplus in 2013 thanks to strong export growth, customs data showed Tuesday.South Korea logged a trade surplus of $44 billion last year. This also marked the fifth consecutive year that the country's trade surplus has topped $25 billion since 2009, according to the data by the Korea Customs Service.Strong exports played a key role in driving the trade surplus.Exports hit a record high of $559.6 billion last year, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier. Imports

Jan. 14, 2014

Growth rate of Chinese tourists to Korea plummets

The growth rate of the number of Chinese tourists visiting to Korea has been plunged since Chinese authorities enforced a new law in October that restricts low-cost travel packages, data showed.According to tourism arrival statistics released Monday by the state-run Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Korea for the January-September period in 2013 was 343 million, up 59.1 percent from the same period a year earlier. But in October, the growth rate of t

Jan. 13, 2014

S. Korea inaugurates new trade policy committee

South Korea on Monday launched a new government committee that will oversee all its trade affairs, including new free trade agreements.The new Trade Policy Committee consists of officials from 23 government ministries and organizations, including the Financial Services Commission and the customs service, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy whose chief will serve as its chairman."In 2014, the government seeks to actively deal with changes in trade conditions of the Asian-Pacif

Jan. 13, 2014

Korea's tea imports spike in 2013

South Korea's tea imports spiked last year as demand increased for healthy and diet foods, customs data showed Sunday.According to the data by Korea Customs Service (KCS), South Korea imported 8,234 tons of tea last year, up 97 percent from 4,171 tons imported in 2009.The imports were valued at US$48.38 million, which represented a 187 percent rise from the $16.86 million tallied four years earlier, the data showed.Imports of yerba mate tea surged from 47 tons in 2009 to 446 tons in 2013, while

Jan. 12, 2014

Seoul bourse expected to remain bearish this week

South Korean stocks may lose more ground this week as investor sentiment remains weak due to a bleak corporate earnings outlook and unfavorable market factors, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 1,938.54 on Friday, down 0.39 percent from a week ago, as a foreign selling binge pummeled shipbuilders and investor sentiment lost steam ahead of the release of the U.S. jobs report.The key index extended its losing streak to three sessions, falling below the 1,940 l

Jan. 12, 2014

S. Korea's agriculture exports inch up 1.4 pct in 2013

South Korea's exports of food and agricultural products rose slightly from a year earlier in 2013 as a steep gain in shipments of fresh foodstuff more than offset a drop in shipments of processed goods, the government said Sunday.In 2013, the country's outbound shipments of agricultural products amounted to $5.72 billion, up 1.4 percent from 2013, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.Shipments of fresh foodstuff, such as fruits and vegetables, surged 9.4 percent on-ye

Jan. 12, 2014

Korea, India to increase economic cooperation

South Korea and India have agreed to deepen economic cooperation in diverse areas in order to further advance their bilateral economic ties going forward, the Finance Ministry here said Friday.The agreement was reached in a meeting between South Korean Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok and his Indian counterpart Palaniappan Chidambaram in New Delhi on Wednesday.The meeting was intended to fine-tune their agendas ahead of next week’s summit talks between the two countries.Hyun and Chidambaram agreed

Jan. 10, 2014

Suseo KTX kicks off to bumpy start

Suseo KTX, a subsidiary of KORAIL that will operate a new bullet train line departing from Suseo Station in southern Seoul from 2016, was officially launched on Friday amid both expectations and concerns.  “Through positive competition with KORAIL, we will introduce a more efficient management system into the nation’s railway industry,” said the founding committee in a statement. “We will offer greater convenience for passengers in southern Seoul who have experienced difficulties using the bulle

Jan. 10, 2014

POSCO develops world’s first steel plate RFID

POSCO, the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker, said on Thursday that it has developed the world’s first radio frequency identification tag (RFID) system specialized for checking the inventory of steel plates for ships.POSCO said it has succeeded in commercializing the system three years after it first began to develop it in a joint effort with Inpoesti, a company specializing in RFID, in 2010. The steel plates can be automatically scanned for information once the tags are attached to them. In the

Jan. 9, 2014

BOK freezes key rate for 8th straight month in Jan.

South Korea's central bank froze the key interest rate for the eighth consecutive month on Thursday as the local economy is showing signs of a moderate recovery amid tame inflation.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his six fellow policymakers held steady the benchmark seven-day repo rate, dubbed the base rate, at 2.5 percent, as widely anticipated."The BOK is likely to keep its current stance at least until the first half, given the trend of the economic recovery at home and abroad," s

Jan. 9, 2014

Red tape may be lifted on Seoul investment

The Park Geun-hye administration appears to have embarked on a process for gaining public consensus on lifting a barriers to promote more active investment in facilities in the metropolitan area surrounding Seoul.Sources said the government is planning to ease all barriers on building manufacturing facilities in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, a move that could indicate even more deregulation in the future.The reports come as the Park administration anxiously tries to ignite corporate inve

Jan. 8, 2014

Households borrowed less from banks in December

Household loans extended by South Korean banks grew at a slower pace in December than a month earlier as households’ balance sheets improved on the back of year-end bonuses and offset a rise in mortgage lending, the central bank said Wednesday.Outstanding household loans extended by local banks, including home-backed and credit loans, reached 480.4 trillion won ($453 billion) as of end-December, up 2.9 trillion won from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The December monthl

Jan. 8, 2014

S. Korea logs record surplus in health tourism in 2013

South Korea saw its surplus in its health tourism account top $100 million last year, largely thanks to increased spending by overseas travelers seeking healthcare and medical services in the country, data showed on Wednesday.According to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea, the country's income from medical tourism reached $187 million in the first 11 months of last year, up 35.3 percent from $138 million a year earlier, marking the biggest tally since the central bank began to keep related

Jan. 8, 2014