SME exporters vulnerable to sharp fall in the yen

The recent sharp fall in Japanese yen’s value poses a threat to local small and medium exporters to Japan, due in part to a lack of currency hedging strategy, the Korea International Trade Association said Thursday.“SME exporters tend to be more vulnerable to currency fluctuation than conglomerates simply because local SMEs have made little investment in developing a strategy to lower risk caused by currency volatility,” a KITA official said. “Most conglomerates have dozens of personnel who deal

Jan. 24, 2013

Hyundai Motor posts record high net profit in 2012

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday that its 2012 earnings reached a record high on robust sales in overseas markets.Net profit reached 9.06 trillion won (US$8.96 billion) last year, up 11.7 percent from 8.1 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.Operating profit rose 5.1 percent to 8.4 trillion won in the same period, with sales rising 8.6 percent to 84.5 trillion won, the company said."We continued brisk performance in 2012," Hyundai

Jan. 24, 2013

Korea’s 2012 GDP hits three-year low at 2%

Korea’s economy grew by 2 percent in 2012, the slowest in three years, due to low consumption and a sharp decline in facility investment stemming from the global economic slowdown, the Bank of Korea said Thursday.The actual growth rate of the nation’s gross domestic product is lower than the initial forecast of 2.4 percent made in October 2012, and the lowest since 2009 when growth expanded by just 0.3 percent during the global financial crisis. The BOK said the GDP grew 0.4 percent in the fourt

Jan. 24, 2013

LSIS wins power system order for KEPCO-Alstom JV

LSIS, a leading cable company in Korea, said Wednesday it was selected as a preferred bidder to manufacture a high-voltage direct current system, an advanced electric power transmissions technology, for KEPCO-Alstom Power Electronics System. KEPCO-Alstom Power Electronics System is a joint venture firm between state-run KEPCO and France-based Alstom for electricity-related businesses. The deal will transfer the HVDC technology to LSIS and support the company to tap into the lucrative, high-end e

Jan. 23, 2013

Sales at major retailers shrink

Sales at both major discount outlet chains and department stores in South Korea dropped in December from a year earlier, reflecting worsening consumer sentiment, the government said Wednesday.The combined sales of the country’s three major discount outlet chains ― Lotte Mart, E-Mart and Home plus ― dropped 5 percent on-year in December, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.This compares with a 3.7 percent on-year gain in December 2011, and also with a 1.7 percent on-year drop in Novemb

Jan. 23, 2013

Revamp boosts trade negotiation efficiency

South Korea’s trade policies, including free trade agreements, are expected to undergo a drastic overhaul under the new government as the presidential transition committee has decided to transfer trade issues from the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Strategy and Finance over to the Knowledge Economy Ministry.Under the government reorganization plan, the Knowledge Economy Ministry, currently in charge of policies on industries, will absorb nearly all functions related to trade while the Foreign

Jan. 23, 2013

S. Korea poised to tackle currency fluctuations: minister

South Korea is ready to deal with the local currency's rapid rise that may be caused by quantitative easing moves by the United States and Japan, Seoul's top economic policymaker said Wednesday."Measures have been prepared," Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told reporters, though he declined to elaborate on details.He also vowed to make efforts to ease currency fluctuations, a key factor in Asia's fourth-largest economy where exports account for about 57 percent of the country's gross domestic prod

Jan. 23, 2013

Renewable energy drive makes little progress

The nation’s drive to increase electricity generation from renewable energy sources is facing rough sailing as a number of power and utility companies failed to meet their green energy production targets in 2012. The targets were set by the government under a regulation called the renewable portfolio standard, or RPS.RPS, which was introduced in January last year, is an annual renewable energy development quota for state-run and private power and utilities companies with more than 500 megawatts

Jan. 22, 2013

Two young Koreans to support one elderly person in 2023

Korea is expected to bear a critically heavy financial burden in caring for elderly people in the coming decades, compared with major developed countries.According to forecasts and data from the U.N. and Statistics Korea, three Koreans, engaging in “core” GDP production activities, financially support a senior person older than 64 years on average as of 2013.“The population engaging in core economic activities refers to individuals aged between 25 and 49,” a Statistics Korea official said. “Thos

Jan. 22, 2013

Advocacy group, Samsung to start leukemia talks

An advocacy group for former employees of Samsung Electronics Co. who allegedly suffered from leukemia and other illnesses while working on chip-making lines accepted the company’s proposal for compensation talks Tuesday, opening the way for resolving the drawn-out dispute.Samsung Electronics has been at loggerheads with the families of the alleged victims of leukemia and other workplace diseases for the past six years. Following the deaths of young semiconductor workers who were diagnosed with

Jan. 22, 2013

NTS launches probe into high-income tax evaders

South Korea’s tax agency has launched investigations into bank accounts of high income earners on suspicion of tax evasion, officials said Sunday.“We are investigating some tax evasion allegations as we have received tens of reports since the tax law revision,” said an official from the National Tax Service. “The results will come out soon.”The tax law was recently revised to give rewards of up to 50 million won ($47,300) to those who report tax evading cases to the tax authorities. The reward s

Jan. 20, 2013

Korea last in OECD in female graduate employment

South Korea’s employment rate of female college graduates ranked at the bottom among a group of the world’s advanced nations, with the country having the largest difference between employment rates for men and women, data showed Sunday.According to the data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only 60.1 percent of college-educated South Korean women were employed as of 2011, marking the lowest rate among 33 OECD member nations.Turkey was second from the bottom,

Jan. 20, 2013

Korea not to levy taxes on clergy: ministry

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― The Finance Ministry said Thursday that it has decided not to impose taxes on priests, monks and other religious leaders anytime soon, apparently leaving the controversial issue to the incoming government.The decision, which is part of the ministry’s tax code revision proposal unveiled earlier in the day, comes amid expectations that the government might push ahead with its earlier confirmed plan to tax the clergy under the principle that “there is a tax where there is an

Jan. 17, 2013

LS Industrial wins $67m deal in Iraq

LS Industrial Systems Co., a leading South Korean manufacturer of electric components, said Thursday it has won a $67 million deal to build a power distribution control center for the Iraqi government.Under the deal with Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity, the company will build seven distribution control centers across the country by early 2015, LS Industrial said in a press release. The deal is the biggest a local firm has won in the smart grid sector.The distribution control center, which operate

Jan. 17, 2013

Uljin nuke reactor halts on malfunction

The first reactor of the Uljin nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, suspended its operations due to a technical malfunction, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power said Thursday. The breakdown in a power measurement instrument in the reactor stopped operations, but the reactor is safe and without signs of radiation leakage, the KHNP said. The 25-year-old first reactor of the Uljin nuclear power plant, which has the power generation capacity of 950 megawatts, has raised safety concerns

Jan. 17, 2013