[News Focus] Seoul mayoral by-election campaign revolves around real estate plans

Real estate development schemes have taken center stage in the ongoing Seoul mayoral race, with candidates churning out a series of plans to woo voters angry about the central government’s strict regulations that have failed to curb soaring housing prices in the capital. Oh Se-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party said last week that he would lift restructuring and redevelopment regulations within a week if he is elected as Seoul mayor. He also pledged to supply 360,000 housing u

March 28, 2021

Hankook Tire builds excellence in high performance tires

Hankook Tire & Technology, the world‘s sixth-largest tiremaker by sales, has spent time and resources in research and development of high performance tires in order to sharpen its competitive edge over global rivals. That investment seems to have paid off, as the firm has landed a series of original equipment tire supply deals for some of the finest cars in the world. According to the Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province-based firm, Hankook’s tires have been chosen for the most advan

March 28, 2021

Are LFP batteries really safer than high-nickel batteries?

Public distrust is running high over the safety of high-nickel lithium-ion batteries after a series of electric vehicle recalls by renowned automakers including Volkswagen, BMW, Renault, General Motors, Ford and Hyundai Motor. Amid growing concerns, lithium iron phosphate batteries -- LFP batteries, which use iron instead of nickel -- have emerged as a safer alternative, though they are less powerful than high-nickel batteries. But despite the widespread belief that high-nickel batteries a

March 28, 2021

Family, business community mourn late Nongshim Group chairman

Local business leaders and mourners paid tribute on Sunday to the founder of Nongshim Group, Shin Choon-ho, who died of chronic illness on Saturday at the age of 92. Shin led the country’s major food conglomerate and leading instant noodle producer for 56 years. The late chairman was born in Ulsan in 1930 and was the younger brother of the late Shin Kyuk-ho, who founded South Korean retail conglomerate Lotte Group. At the funeral altar at Seoul National University Hospital on Sunday

March 28, 2021

BMW Korea to introduce new cars, service centers to improve customer satisfaction

BMW Group Korea will introduce 10 new cars to local customers this year, including electric vehicles and new Mini models, and will expand its facilities here, adding new service centers, showrooms and expanding its existing logistic center to improve customer satisfaction, the automaker said Sunday. In its first launch this year, the automaker in February rolled out the second-generation BMW 4 Series, to which the brand’s new “design language” has been applied. The renewed

March 28, 2021

[#WeFACE] For Posco, ESG is all part of ‘corporate citizenship’

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews with executives of South Korea’s leading corporations on their response to environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, issues, which have become central factors globally in measuring the sustainability of an investment or business decision. -- Ed.  Handling with the uncertainties and anxiety rising from the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses here and abroad have found themselves swept away by burgeoning ESG calls over th

March 28, 2021

More Koreans inclined to invest in stocks in wake of COVID-19: survey

More South Koreans are becoming inclined to stock investing as they seek to take advantage of a turnaround from the COVID-19 financial market crisis, a survey showed Sunday. Of 1,000 respondents aged between 19 and 59, 67.8 percent said they were interested in investing via stocks, according to a survey conducted in February by Seoul-based market research firm Macromill Embrain Trend Monitor. Among them, 52.7 percent said they had begun to take an interest in stock investing since January 2020

March 28, 2021

Mirae Asset Global reaps record annual profit as diversification bears fruit

Mirae Asset Global Investments, an asset management arm of investment banking group Mirae Asset, reaped a record annual profit for 2020 as its efforts to diversify its product pipeline and beef up its global profile paid off. The latest filing by the second-largest asset management firm in South Korea, overseeing 112.1 trillion won ($99 billion) in assets as of end-2020, showed that its net profit throughout last year came to 256.4 billion won, up 66.2 percent from a year prior. The figure m

March 28, 2021

[Feature] Korean banks’ Myanmar ambition dashed by rising political unrest

The worsening turmoil in Myanmar is casting a shadow over South Korean banks’ rosy vision of gaining a foothold in the Southeast Asian region as the ongoing political unrest has either entirely or partially suspended their operations. South Korean banks have been gearing up to start business in the Myanmar market since 2012, as the quasi-civilian government undertook economic and political reforms. The administration that took power in 2011 institutionalized a new foreign investment law t

March 28, 2021

LIG Nex1 CEO calls for need of Korea’s own GPS

Korea will need its own global positioning system, dubbed KPS, for the sake of the country’s national security as well as space industry development, said Kim Ji-chan, chief executive officer of LIG Nex1. “Without the country’s own satellite navigation system, Korea relies heavily on the GPS developed by the United States,” Kim told a meeting on Korea’s space development plan attended by President Moon Jae-in Thursday. LIG Nex1 is a leading defense technology

March 28, 2021

SK Innovation considers all options including withdrawal from US

Calling the punishment by the United States’ trade watchdog “catastrophic and a harm to public interest,” South Korean battery maker SK Innovation said it was considering all options, including abandonment of its $2.7 billion manufacturing facilities in the US state of Georgia. In its latest appeal to the US International Trade Commission, SK Innovation alluded to halting the ongoing construction of its second battery manufacturing plant in Commerce City, Georgia, as well as

March 28, 2021

5 window producers fined for exaggerated advertising

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Sunday it has decided to fine five manufacturers of windows a combined 1.28 billion won ($1.13 million) for exaggerated advertising. LG Hausys and its four rivals ran advertisements that misled consumers to believe that installing their products can sharply reduce energy costs, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). The companies did not specify in ads that such results on energy efficiency could be generated in a strictly controlled environ

March 28, 2021

Doosan Infracore releases 100-ton excavators in global market

The South Korean construction equipment maker Doosan Infracore Co. said Sunday it has launched its 100-ton excavators, the biggest in its lineup in the global market, and won orders for them from Mongolia and Chile. Doosan Infracore bagged an order for one 100-ton excavator from a Chilean company, with a 100-ton excavator and a 80-ton excavator ordered by a Mongolian company, the company said in an emailed statement. Global demand for the large excavator market is estimated at about 1,000 unit

March 28, 2021

LG Uplus to supply 5G content to Thailand's top telco

LG Uplus Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Sunday it signed a deal to export $11.14 million worth of 5G solutions and content to Thailand's top mobile carrier, Advanced Info Service (AIS). Under the deal, LG Uplus will provide AIS with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) 5G content and also oversee the rollout of the service from its testing to launch. LG Uplus said it expects its immersive 5G content, which includes Korean music shows, to gain popularity in Thaila

March 28, 2021

[Eye Plus] A Visit to ASEAN National Recreation Forest

As spring creeps in, more people are seeking outdoor activities to take advantage of the warmer weather -- as evidenced by the recent uptrend in Korean-language Google searches for parks. Located 25 kilometers north of central Seoul, the ASEAN National Recreation Forest in the city of Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, makes for a good spot for outings with family and friends. The forest is especially accessible to those based in Seoul, Incheon, Ilsan and Uijeongbu, as it takes roughly an hour to make

March 27, 2021

[Photo News] Lacoste crocodiles come to Garosu-gil

To celebrate the launch of a collaborative collection with Polaroid, Lacoste recently set up six pop-up zones on Garosu-gil street featuring huge, brightly colored crocodiles. Visitors to the flagship Lacoste store on Garosu-gil in Gangnam, Seoul, look through a shop window at the exhibition “Lacoste X Polaroid.”  Visitors take pictures of their reflections in the store’s rainbow mirror in southern Seoul. (Photos: Yonhap) By Yoon Chae-won (choenayoon@heraldcorp.com)

March 27, 2021

[Obituary] Nongshim Group chairman dies at age 92

Shin Choon-ho, chairman of major food company Nongshim Group, died Saturday of a chronic illness, the company said. He was 92. The group's flagship unit, Nongshim Co., is South Korea's top instant noodle maker. Born in 1930, Shin founded the food company in 1965 and became the group's chairman in 1992. (Yonhap)

March 27, 2021

NPS delays decision on domestic stock ratio

South Korea‘s public pension fund, the National Pension Service, delayed a decision on whether or not to increase the proportion of domestic stock holdings, amid mounting criticism over the fund’s selling streak. NPS investment Management, the fund’s highest decision-making body, held a meeting Friday to discuss the matter, but failed to reach an agreement on whether or not to raise the proportion of strategic asset distribution limit from the current 2 percentage points to 3

March 26, 2021

Prosecution needs to stop probe into Samsung chief's alleged propofol use: expert panel

A panel of civilian experts decided Friday to recommend that the state prosecution service halt its investigation into the allegation that Lee Jae-yong, the jailed de facto leader of Samsung Group, had taken propofol shots illegally. The committee of outside experts plans to deliver the opinion, which is not binding, to the Supreme Prosecutors Office. Among the 14 members of the panel who took part in the voting, eight opposed the continuation of the probe, and the rest favored it. They faile

March 26, 2021

Major banking groups hint at higher dividends at shareholders meetings

South Korea’s major banking groups expressed a willingness to review various ways to increase their dividend payouts -- including interim dividends – amid government restrictions that have placed a cap on earnings distribution, in shareholders meetings held through Friday. In an apparent bid to quell shareholders’ growing complaints over the firms’ decision to heed the Financial Supervisory Service’s earlier “recommendation” to keep their dividend payo

March 26, 2021