Doublestar chairman visits Korea to persuade labor union

As Kumho Tire continues to face fervent opposition from unionized labor regarding the sale of the company to China’s state-run tiremaker, Doublestar Chairman Chai Yongsen is visiting Korea to persuade the labor union, the Korea Development Bank confirmed Wednesday.While here, Chai is scheduled to hold a press conference Thursday morning at the KDB headquarters and discuss unresolved issues with creditors during the trip.As for the labor union, Chai is expected to explain Doublestar’s future inve

March 21, 2018

Kumho Tire to supply tires for BMW’s new X3

South Korean tiremaker Kumho Tire will supply its Crugen HP91 high performance original equipment tires to German luxury BMW’s new X3 SUV, diversifying its customer portfolio, the company said Tuesday.The tires made at Kumho’s Gwangju plant in South Jeolla Province will be supplied to the BMW new X3 that began production at the Spartanburg factory in June 2017.The X3 midsize SUV is BMW’s top-selling model first released in 2003. The German carmaker has since sold over 1.6 million units worldwide

March 20, 2018

Hyundai receives 733 preorders for Nexo on first day

Hyundai Motor received a total of 733 preorders on the first day of opening for its Nexo, the automaker’s latest sport utility vehicle powered by fuel cells, the company said Tuesday.The number of preorders is three times more the number of vehicles subject to the government’s subsidy, reflecting its popularity, officials said.  Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun (right) poses with Chris Urmson, CEO of Aurora, at a press conference held to unveil Nexo on sidelines of Consumer Electronics Show i

March 20, 2018

Kia starts preorders of K9, plans to sell 26,000 a year

Kia Motors, sister company to South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor, has started preorders of all new K9, the largest model of its signature K-series here, with an aim to sell 20,000 units a year, the company said Tuesday.At a media session held to unveil the all new K9, the carmaker’s vice president Kwon Hyuk-soo said it also plans to sell the luxury sedan overseas in the second half, setting the sales target at 6,000 a year.A K9 sedan displayed at Salon de K9 in Seoul (Kia Motors)Calling it th

March 20, 2018

Toyota leads Korea’s hybrid car market

As carmakers compete in the eco-friendly vehicle market, Toyota Motor Korea is poised to lead the hybrid market here, achieving average annual growth of 82 percent, the company said Tuesday.Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus sold a combined 19,102 units of hybrid vehicles here in 2017, up 26 percent on-year, the company said.The two made up 84 percent of the imported hybrid car market in 2017, when a total of 22,773 units of hybrids were newly registered, according to data from the Korea Automobi

March 20, 2018

Pace quickens for Kumho Tire sale

Inching closer to a deadline set by the creditors of Kumho Tire for the protesting labor union to decide on selling the ailing company to Chinese tiremaker Doublestar, related parties are making all out efforts to hype up public opinion for the sale, against the opposing voices of the labor union.Office workers of Kumho Tire on Monday held a protest in front of the Kumho Asiana headquarters in northern Seoul, opposing a walkout and calling for prompt management normalization.Doublestar Chairman

March 19, 2018

US investigating deadly Hyundai, Kia airbag failures

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into a series of deadly crashes in which airbags in Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate. (Yonhap)The administration's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) "is currently aware of six crashes with significant collision-related damage events involving Hyundai and Kia models where airbags failed to deploy in frontal crashes," which four people died and six were hurt, its website said.The "failure of the airbag cont

March 18, 2018

GM Korea posted highest productivity among 5 local automakers in 2012: report

Amid continued uncertainty surrounding the fate of GM Korea, a report Thursday showed that the automaker achieved the highest productivity per worker of any Korean carmaker, countering the company’s argument that its poor performance was due to high operating and labor costs.GM Korea and its second-biggest shareholder Korea Development Bank officially started due diligence this week, following the headquarters’ decision to shut down one of its plants in the country.In a report released Thursday,

March 15, 2018

GM Korea needs to up operating rate to get back on track: report

Ailing automaker GM Korea Co. should raise its capacity utilization, cut fixed costs and receive a new cash injection of around 1 trillion won to get back on its feet, a report said Thursday.The report comes as the local unit of the US auto giant struggles to stay afloat amid snowballing deficits. GM Korea posted a cumulative loss of around 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) from 2014-17, with its equity capital eroded completely.Citing low productivity, GM announced in mid-February that it would shu

March 15, 2018

Toyota Korea releases Prius C hybrid with fuel, price efficiency

Toyota Korea has rolled out the Prius C hybrid compact car, boasting 19.4 kilometers per hour fuel economy and an affordable price tag of 24.9 million won ($23,400), with aims to bolster its hybrid vehicle portfolio, the company said Wednesday.Marking the last model of Toyota’s Prius hybrid car lineup, the Prius C was first introduced in Japan in 2011, followed by the US and other countries.Reaping popularity worldwide, the Prius C hybrid is the Japanese automaker’s second best-selling hybrid mo

March 14, 2018

[Newsmaker] Engle in tug-of-war over fate of GM Korea

A week after General Motors announced that it would be shutting down one of its plants in South Korea, an executive in charge of the US carmaker’s overseas operations made yet another rare move. On Feb. 20, Barry Engle, the president of GM International, visited the parliament to meet lawmakers apparently uneasy over the carmaker’s restructuring plan. While shaking hands with lawmakers suspicious of the fate of GM’s remaining operations here, he said that the carmaker wants to stay and continue

March 13, 2018

[News Focus] Why is GM demanding foreign investment zone designation?

Amid a debacle over its plant shutdown, GM Korea applied Monday to Incheon Metropolitan City and South Gyeongsang Province for a designation of its remaining three plants as foreign investment zones for tax benefits.During his fourth visit to Korea last week, GM International President Barry Engle met with Lee Dong-gull, head of the state-run Korea Development Bank, and related officials. He said the automaker would submit requests for factory sites in Bupyeong, Incheon and Changwon, South Gyeon

March 12, 2018

Audi receives permit to test level 3 automation in Korea

Audi Volkswagen Korea, the local distributor of the two German brands, has received a temporary permit from the Seoul government to test drive its level 3 automation here, marking the first among import carmakers, the company said Thursday.Equipped with self-driving systems, the Audi A8 will run on local roads and K-City, Korea‘s test bed for automated vehicles in Gyeonggi Province, collecting data on traffic conditions here, while developing its level 3 conditionally automated driving technolog

March 8, 2018

KDB chairman puts ball in GM’s court

The state-run Korea Development Bank will review injecting fresh investment into ailing GM Korea after examining the viability of its profit structure, its chief said Thursday.Chairman Lee Dong-gull of the KDB told reporters that he had made a “verbal commitment” to the President of GM International Barry Engle that he would consider making fresh investment into the US carmaker’s local unit on the condition of the company presenting a self-rescue plan. But regarding the carmaker’s request to han

March 8, 2018

Hyundai denies oil leakage at Asan factory

Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s leading automaker, on Tuesday denied suspicions that its factory in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, had leaked cutting oil into a nearby lake, the company said.“We are assuming that oil on roads was carried away in the rain. The related team is working to find out details,” Hyundai Motor said.Fishermen in the region and Asan city have called for Hyundai to apologize and take action for the leakage that has caused fishes to die and become deformed. “Component analys

March 6, 2018

GM Korea’s W2.3tr debt due next month

GM Korea is to face an aggravating financial situation over the next two months, amid escalating protest from its labor union and a tug-of-war between its headquarters and the local government. 　The company must come up with ways to pay a combined 2.3 trillion won ($213 million) for voluntary resignations and loans.　The maturity date for the 700 billion won GM Korea borrowed from its headquarters expires later this month. 　The automaker’s board members agreed last month to postpone the loan’s du

March 6, 2018

Kumho Tire’s labor union to continue protest against sale to Chinese firm

In response to the state-run Korea Development Bank’s decision to sell the struggling Kumho Tire to Chinese tiremaker Double Star, the labor union of Kumho Tire will stage a partial strike this week followed by a general strike next week, the union said Monday.Kumho Tire’s Gwangju and Gokseong plants in South Jeolla Province had stopped production Saturday due to partial strikes staged by the union, the company said.Last week’s partial strikes came after the Korea Development Bank, the main cred

March 5, 2018

GM Korea’s labor union to stage multiple strikes this week

The labor union of GM Korea will hold multiple strikes this week with no end in sight for the US automaker’s plant closedown debacle. According to the labor union‘s website on Monday, the members will be holding a press conference in front of Korea Development Bank’s head office in Yeouido, western Seoul at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, to be followed by requests for meetings with representatives of the bank, the National Tax Service and the National Assembly.They will concurrently stage a one-man rally i

March 5, 2018

GM Korea's Changwon plant suffers tumbling sales over 4 years

Sales of vehicles made at GM Korea's plant in the southern city of Changwon have plunged 40 percent over the last four years, industry data showed Monday, casting doubt on its future viability.GM Korea's Changwon plant produces the Spark city car, and Damas and Labo small commercial vehicles. It is one of GM Korea's three plants in South Korea. The two others are in Gunsan on the west coast and Bupyeong south of Seoul.According to the data, domestic sales and exports of the three models came to

March 5, 2018

[Behind the Wheel] All new K3 flaunts top notch fuel economy

YANGPYEONG, Gyeonggi Province – For drivers looking to purchase a new car, fuel economy is a crucial factor to consider, and Kia Motors has rolled out a compact sedan that boasts top level efficiency. Kia Motors’ fully revamped second-generation K3 compact sedan is back in the market in six years as an “upscale dynamic sedan,” the company said.After the four-hour test drive from Mayfield Hotel in western Seoul to Yangpyeong rest area in Gyeonggi Province, which expressways made up over 90 percen

March 4, 2018