Hyundai Motor’s cumulative sales in U.S. top 8 million

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s leading automaker, said Friday that its cumulative sales in the U.S. surpassed the 8 million mark in February, 27 years after its made inroads into the world’s second-largest automotive market.Hyundai Motor began selling cars in the U.S. in 1986, with a single model, the Hyundai Excel. In that year, some 168,00 Excels were sold.Hyundai Motor, now the world’s fifth-largest automaker along with its affiliate Kia Motors Corp., achieved the 5 million sales mark in th

March 8, 2013

KORAIL to support Yongsan project to avoid bankruptcy

State-run rail operator KORAIL has decided to inject 6.4 billion won ($5.9 million) of emergency funds into the faltering massive project to develop Yongsan in a desperate effort to avoid bankruptcy.KORAIL officials said Friday that the financial support will be made in the form of an advance payment guarantee on part of the 25.7 billion won compensation the project developer Dream Hub is supposed to receive from the Korea Post.Dream Hub, led by KORAIL and Lotte Tour, had faced bankruptcy as its

March 8, 2013

Korea to streamline distribution of farm goods

The government will step up efforts to streamline the country’s distribution structure for farming products in a bid to ease their price hikes and keep inflation under control, the Finance Ministry said Friday.South Korea’s consumer prices remain quite stable, but fresh food and other daily necessity costs have been rising in recent months, hurting the livelihoods of the ordinary working-class population.In a move to induce price cuts, the government plans to shorten the overall distribution pro

March 8, 2013

Korea, China, Japan to launch free trade talks this month

Korea, China, and Japan will kick off their official negotiations on a trilateral Free Trade Agreement in Seoul this month, said officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.The trade pact, if properly effectuated as planned, would become the first one to be clinched by the new Park Geun-hye administration. It would also form the world’s third-largest economic bloc, following the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union.President Park received related reports from the

March 8, 2013

Price hike likely to accelerate drop in smoking rate

South Korea's smoking rate has steadily declined over the years, indicating that a large price increase currently sought by the government may help significantly cut the rate, government and market sources said Friday.According to the health ministry and the statistics service, the amount of money spent on tobacco by each household of more than two persons came to an average of 18,351 won (US$16.91) per month last year, or 0.75 percent of the average income of such households.The proportion drop

March 8, 2013

Imported car sales jump 14.8% in Feb.

Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea jumped 14.8 percent in February from a year earlier, a trade association said Thursday, amid slumping sales of local cars.A total 10,556 units of foreign brand cars were sold here last month, compared with 9,196 units sold a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.The sales figure marked a stark contrast to a 12.5 percent drop in sales of domestic cars in February when the five local carmakers sold a total o

March 7, 2013

Small companies’ overseas investment slumps in 2012

Overseas direct investment by South Korean small and medium enterprises lagged far behind that of big companies in 2012 as they were reluctant to invest due to worsening profitability, a research institute said Thursday.The Korea Eximbank Overseas Economic Research Institute said local SMEs invested a combined $3.6 billion in foreign countries last year, or a mere 18.9 percent of the $19 billion overseas direct investment made by large companies. The ratio reached 58.2 percent in 2005 but it beg

March 7, 2013

Retail sales forecast to have improved in February

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s retail sales are expected to have improved slightly in February, driven in part by increased sales at department stores and discount shops, a report showed Thursday.Sales at department stores are estimated to have risen 1.1 percent on-year in February, a turnaround from the previous month’s 8.2 percent decline, the finance ministry said in a report that assesses the latest economic conditions.Sales at discount store chains are also presumed to have jumped 10.

March 7, 2013

Inter-Korean trade dwarfed by China-N. Korea trade: data

Inter-Korean trade jumped more than 15 percent last year but was still far short of that between China and North Korea, data showed Thursday.According to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), trade volume between South Korea and North Korea reached $1.98 billion last year, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier.But the 2012 annual trade amount between the two Koreas was just some 30 percent of North Korea's trade with its strongest ally China, the data showed.Last y

March 7, 2013

Women in 20s more economically active than men

The proportion of Korean women in their 20s currently working or looking for work exceeded that of men in the same age group for the first time last year.The so-called economic activity rate for women reached 62.9 percent, surpassing men’s 62.6 percent in 2012, signaling change in the labor market.An increasing number of women are working alongside men, data by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Employment and Labor showed.The increase in women’s activity rate is attributable to women pushing

March 7, 2013

KORAIL on verge of capital erosion

The state-run rail corporation has developed a contingency plan in preparation for the possible bankruptcy of the 31 trillion won ($29 billion) Yongsan development project in which the company holds a 25 percent stake, a company official said on Wednesday. “If the troubled development project goes bankrupt, KORAIL will face full-scale capital erosion as money attained in return for the land offer will disappear in the accounting book,” the official said. The Yongsan project is the nation’s large

March 6, 2013

Ssangyong Motor seeks to export 36,000 units to Russia

GENEVA (Yonhap News) ― Ssangyong Motor Co., South Korea’s smallest automaker, will be able to export 36,000 vehicles to Russia this year as it seeks to boost its sales at home and abroad, the company head said Tuesday.Lee Yoo-il, Ssangyong’s chief executive officer, told reporters at the Geneva International Motor Show that his company will export disassembled kits of parts and components to be reassembled into vehicles in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.Russian workers will assemble

March 6, 2013

Korea imports beef from Chile for first time

The first-ever shipment of beef from Chile arrived in South Korea last month, a government agency said Wednesday, raising expectations imports will likely grow steadily due to a bilateral free trade deal.A 25.84-ton shipment of Chilean beef arrived here early last month, according to the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency.South Korea and Chile implemented a bilateral free trade agreement in 2004, under which Seoul agreed to completely remove import taxes on up to 400 to

March 6, 2013

Foreign ownership of land in Korea grows in 2012

The amount of land in South Korea owned by foreigners grew slightly last year with more than half of such land owned by American citizens, the government said Wednesday.The amount of land owned by foreign investors or companies reached 226.21 million square meters as of the end of last year, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.The land owned by foreigners accounted for 0.2 percent of South Korea’s total area with the estimated val

March 6, 2013

Top 20 conglomerates flunk in social responsibility

Conglomerates such as Shinsegae and CJ that provide goods and services directly to retail consumers flunked their evaluations on corporate social responsibility performances.Korea’s Corporate Governance Service said Wednesday that CJ and its subsidiaries earned the lowest score of 5.6 points out of 100 among the top 20 conglomerates and units in running a fair and reliable operation for consumers.Shinsegae, contrary to its close home rival Lotte, which received 53.68 points, earned around 20 poi

March 6, 2013

Regulations hit prices of retail, food stocks

South Korean retailers and food makers are suffering falls in their share prices as the new government is tightening regulations on job security and price stabilization, analysts said Wednesday. The analysts, however, predicted the fundamentals of the retailers and food makers including their earnings will set the future direction of their share prices, saying the regulation risk will affect their share prices in the short term. President Park Geun-hye, who took office late last month, has vowed

March 6, 2013

S. Korea imports beef from Chile for first time

The first-ever shipment of beef from Chile arrived in South Korea last month, a government agency said Wednesday, raising expectations imports will likely grow steadily due to a bilateral free trade deal.A 25.84-ton shipment of Chilean beef arrived here early last month, according to the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency.South Korea and Chile implemented a bilateral free trade agreement in 2004, under which Seoul agreed to completely remove import taxes on up to 400 to

March 6, 2013

S. Korean central bank buys more gold in Feb.

South Korea's central bank said Wednesday it increased its holding of gold in three months in February in a bid to diversify the portfolio of its foreign exchange reserves worth more than US$320 billion.The Bank of Korea (BOK) said it bought 20 tons of gold, raising the central bank's gold holdings to 104.4 tons valued at US$4.79 billion as of end-February.The move marked the BOK's fifth purchase of the yellow metal since July 2011 when the bank bought gold for the first time in 13 years. It als

March 6, 2013

Lotte Liquor BG files damages suit against Jinro

Lotte Liquor BG Co., a South Korean alcoholic beverage maker, said Tuesday that it has filed a 10 billion won ($9.2 million) damages lawsuit against its rival Hite Jinro Co. for harming its image and causing sales losses. According to Lotte Liquor BG, Hite Jinro spread slanderous gossip about “Cheoumcheorum,” the flagship soju brand of Lotte Liquor BG, after an Internet broadcasting station aired false information saying that the product is harmful to humans in March 2012. Soju is South Korea’s

March 5, 2013