South Korea’s top five conglomerates have grown even bigger in terms of assets they hold and revenue they produce in the past three years, but their contribution to creating new jobs is lagging, a report showed Sunday.According to conglomerate tracking research firm Chaebul.com, the combined assets of the top five largest companies -- Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte -- recorded about 930 trillion won ($817 billion) last year, a 15.5 percent rise from 2012. This accounted for 60 percent

Industry July 24, 2016

The Korean construction and shipbuilding industries have seen the worst record of overseas orders in the first half of this year amid the sluggish economy and the aftermath of Brexit. According to the International Contractors Association of Korea, the total value of overseas orders of local major construction companies reached 12.6 trillion won ($11 billion), dropping by 38.7 percent on-year. This is one fifth of their initial goal of making 62 trillion for this year. Samsung C&T recorded the h

Industry July 21, 2016

The nation’s top steelmaker POSCO recorded 12.8 trillion won ($11.2 billion) in total sales and 670 billion won in operating profit in the second quarter of this year, the company said Thursday. This is respectively a 3.2 percent rise and a 2.8 percent increase compared to the previous quarter. The improved performance of the steel, information and communication technology, and material businesses contributed to the rise, despite the slight decrease in sales and operating profits of POSCO E&C an

Industry July 21, 2016

The performance of Korean oil refineries is expected to continue a gradual rebound, with improving refining margins, industry sources said Wednesday. The benchmark Singapore complex gross refining margin, which peaked at $9.9 per barrel in January, plummeted to $4.9 per barrel last month. The index, however, started to rebound to $5.4 per barrel in the first week of July. (Yonhap)The index indicates the difference between the total value of petroleum products coming out of an oil refinery and th

Industry July 20, 2016

Electric car chargers will likely be available at telephone poles across the country soon, a state-run power company said Wednesday. Korea Electric Power Corp. said it is currently developing electric car chargers that can be installed at telephone poles. Once developed, about 30,000 telephone poles near parking lots will be equipped with the chargers. There are about 9 million telephone poles across the country.  (KEPCO)The idea for the “telephone pole charger” was brought up by a KEPCO employe

Industry July 20, 2016

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering faced three additional compensation lawsuits from institutional investors over the massive accounting fraud, following the first one earlier this month, sources said Tuesday. Government Employees Pension Service and Teachers’ Pension filed the lawsuit against the ailing company for compensation of some 22 billion won ($19 million). Korea Post also separately sought 400 million won in compensation. This has led to over 70 billion won in compensation laws

Industry July 19, 2016

The unions of Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy Industries on Tuesday launched a partial strike against the rupture of the wage negotiation. Two shift teams of the carmaker union staged the strike for two hours each while the heavy industries union did for three hours. This is the first collective strike of the two unions in 23 years when the federation of Hyundai Group’s unions launched it in 1993. The two unions hold a press conference before staging a collective strike in Ulsan, Tuesday. (Yonha

Industry July 19, 2016

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering said Monday it will kick off building oil plant modules that is worth $2.7 billion, the largest plant project in the company’s history. The shipbuilding firm said the shareholders of Tengizchevroil LLP -- Chevron Overseas Co., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures, LUKARCO B.V. and KazMunayGas NC -- had made the final investment decision on expanding the Tengiz oilfield in western Kazakhstan. The expansion project is worth $38.8 billion, the shipbuilder said. Yo

Industry July 18, 2016

CINCINNATI -- Multinational consumer goods company Procter & Gamble said its fabric refresher Febreze is scientifically safe for use, amid growing public concern in Korea over its possible toxicity.P&G headquarters said that the ingredients of Febreze are strictly controlled and within the safety range so it is not toxic when inhaled.The P&G Ivorydale Technical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. (P&G)“All ingredients used in Febreze products have been thoroughly assessed to be safe for consumers u

Industry July 18, 2016

Techno valleys in Korea are playing a pivotal role as hubs for technology start-ups as the government pushes to boost innovation through policy measures. Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which opened in 2011, is one of the leading techno valleys in Korea. It started small with only 82 companies in the 661,000 square meter area and first-year sales reaching just 5 trillion won, ($4.3 billion).Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province (Yonhap)Pangyo Techno Valley, how

Industry July 15, 2016

Techno valleys in Korea are playing a pivotal role as hubs for technology start-ups as the government pushes to boost innovation through policy measures. Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which opened in 2011, is one of the leading techno valleys in Korea. It started small. Having only 82 companies in the 661,000-square-meter-large land, the first-year sales reached just 5 trillion won, ($4.3 billion).Pangyo Techno Valley, however, soon drew a sharp growth as the number of com

Industry July 15, 2016

The origin of AmorePacific traces back to Suh Kyung-bae’s grandmother Yun Dok-jeong who came up with an idea of selling hair oil made of camellia oil in Gaeseong, in present day North Korea. Attracting upper class customers with the high-quality oil, Yun soon established a cosmetics shop, Changseong Store, in 1932 and expanded to other products, such as facial cream and powder. Learning from Yun’s entrepreneurship and business skills, Suh’s father Suh Sung-whan began to fully engage in the busin

Industry July 11, 2016

Women in Korea have come a long way. Their social and political standings have greatly improved in this traditionally male-dominated society, as can be seen by the female head of the nation. In the corporate world, however, little has changed. Women in boardrooms or the C-suite are still a rare sight. Lee Haeng-hee is among those rare ones. Corning Korea president Lee Haeng-hee (Corning Korea)The president of Corning Korea, the local unit of U.S. materials firm Corning, is the epitome of how a w

Industry July 8, 2016

The Korean government will gradually shut down 10 aged coal-fired power plants as part of measures to curb fine dust emissions, officials said Wednesday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that the 10, to be closed by 2025, are aged over 30 years and have a combined capacity of 3.3 million kilowatts. It will also no longer build coal power plants to support the country’s aim of cutting the fine dust level by 24 percent to 6,600 tons by 2030. Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan presides ov

Industry July 6, 2016

Multinational conglomerate 3M is remaining silent over its potentially toxic filters used in local air cleaners, stirring public anger over the lack of countermeasures. Earlier last month, a local broadcast revealed that a toxic substance called OIT was detected in air cleaners produced by Cuckoo and Dayou-winia. LG Electronics also admitted later that it had found the same issue in products. The filters of those products were all provided by 3M. Customers looks at air purifiers at a home applia

Industry July 3, 2016