Daewoo International Corp., the trading company controlled by Posco, and Korea Resources Corp. made an initial bid for Whitehaven Coal Ltd., an Australian producer with a market value of A$3.6 billion ($3.6 billion).State-run Korea Resources is leading the bid, Kim Beom-suk, a spokesman for Daewoo International said Monday by phone. The offer was confirmed by Kang Shin Young, a spokesman for Seoul

Industry Feb. 14, 2011

Shares in Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction tumbled on Monday after the Korean shipbuilder said it decided to shut down three operations in Korea due to labor strife. Hanjin said in a statement that it had submitted reports to local governments that it would close one shipyard and two plants, saying ongoing strike activity since 2009 had hampered its production.Hanjin, the only unprofitable s

Industry Feb. 14, 2011

Kolon Industries Co., a Korean textile maker, plans to buy the shares in subsidiary Cambridge Kolon Co. on the market that it doesn’t own.Cambridge Kolon owners will get 782,580 shares of the merged company, or 0.16 share for every one of the existing securities, on May 16, Kolon said in a regulatory filing on Monday. (Bloomberg)

Industry Feb. 14, 2011

Korea’s exports of IT-related products jumped 16.3 percent in January from a year earlier on strong global demand for semiconductors, displays and mobile phones, the government said Tuesday.The country shipped $12.83 billion worth of IT products abroad, marking the 15th month in a row that exports grew at a double-digit rate, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a monthly report.Exports of se

Industry Feb. 8, 2011

Toyota Motor Corp., a Japanese carmaking giant, will recall 2,459 vehicles sold in Korea due to manufacturing defects that could lead to oil leakage, Seoul’s transportation ministry said Tuesday.Subject to the recall are the Lexus IS250 model produced and sold between Sept. 3, 2007 and Dec. 3, 2008, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The luxury passenger cars were f

Industry Feb. 8, 2011

The number of passengers using international ferry services in and out of Korea rose to a record high last year, bolstered by rebounding economic conditions, the government said Tuesday.International ferry passengers totaled 2.77 million last year, up 32.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The figure was the highest ever, exceeding the

Industry Feb. 8, 2011

The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a supplementary agreement to the free trade deal concluded between Korea and the United States, a government spokesman said.In December, the two countries came to a final consensus on the bilateral free trade agreement after revising terms on issues such as auto tariffs and pork, paving the way for the parliamentary ratification of a pact that was originally signed

Feb. 8, 2011

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― A key European parliament committee endorsed Monday a major free trade deal with Korea after securing safeguards to protect Europe’s auto makers.The International Trade Committee voted overwhelmingly, 21-4, to send the deal, hailed as the most ambitious free trade pact ever negotiated by the European Union, to the full parliament for a final vote.Doubling EU trade with Korea, the

Feb. 8, 2011

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-largest mobile phone maker, maintained its lead in the North American cell phone market last year with a record share, industry data showed Tuesday. Samsung shipped 58.4 million cell phones in 2010 in the United States and Canada, claiming 30.2 percent of the handset market there, according to the data by market research firm Strategy Analytics, Inc. The

Technology Feb. 8, 2011

Korea’s banking giants are tapping China, Vietnam and other Asian countries as they wade through competition in the highly saturated local credit card market, industry watchers said Tuesday.The overseas push comes as Korean card firms have been beefing up their marketing expenses in a bid to lure more subscribers with spin-offs and new entries expected to further intensify competition to grab a bi

Feb. 8, 2011

Korea‘s economy still faces many uncertainties despite its recent rebound, a government report said Tuesday, urging more efforts to achieve a “sustained” recovery by coping with lingering downside risks at home and abroad. Debt problems in advanced nations, growing inflationary pressure in emerging countries and unrest in the Middle East are cited as downside factors that could weigh on the Korean

Feb. 8, 2011

The use of Internet banking in Korea rose 27 percent last year from a year earlier as more people conducted financial transactions online for convenience, the central bank said Tuesday.Online banking transactions reached 33.7 million per day on average in 2010, compared with 26.5 million the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea. The data is based on users checking financial records, trans

Technology Feb. 8, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Amazon on Monday released a preview version of a Kindle software update that puts electronic book readers on the same page with friends still clinging to ink and paper works.Page numbers in tens of thousands of Kindle digital books, including bestsellers, have been matched with those in real-world copies of the titles.“Our customers have told us they want real page numbers th

Technology Feb. 8, 2011