The Korea Herald

Lotte opens landmark shopping mall

South Korean retail giant Lotte Group will be opening Lotte World Mall, the nation’s largest shopping mall, in the Jamsil area of southern Seoul on Oct. 14 in a move that it hopes will put an end to disputes over the safety of the structure. “We are pleased to see the group taking the first step toward its two-decade-long dream to build a global landmark in Korea,” said So Jin-sei, a Lotte Group president, who is responsible for the group’s external relations division, at a press conference held

Industry Oct. 13, 2014

Seoul, Beijing to extend currency swap deal to 2017

South Korea’s central bank said Saturday it has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to extend their maturing currency swap deal by three years to 2017.In a meeting in Washington, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol and People’s Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan signed an agreement to extend the bilateral deal to Oct. 10, 2017, the central bank said in a statement. The accord was to expire this year.In October 2011, the two central banks agreed to double their won-yuan swap to 64 trillion won ($60 bil

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

Cities urged to reinvent outdated infrastructure

NEW YORK ― A global expert in urban planning called for cities to seek to reform their outdated infrastructure for sustainable growth. Urbanization around the world has been accelerating and cities, which already account for some two-thirds of global energy consumption, drive the world’s growth. “Cities around the world, however, are facing challenges their original planners could have never imagined,” Roland Busch, a managing board member of German industrial giant Siemens, told The Korea Heral

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

Cities urged to reinvent outdated infrastructure

Hyundai, Kia struggle to shore up presence on home turf

South Korea’s top two automakers ― Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors ― are facing uphill battles with foreign rivals in the local auto market with their combined local market share staying below the 70 percent mark, industry data showed Sunday.Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors held a combined 67.3 percent in the home auto market in September, the lowest since December last year when the comparable figure was 66.7 percent, according to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association. T

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

Samsung ups stake in NAND flash memory market in Q2

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest computer memory chipmaker, increased its share in the global NAND flash memory market in the second quarter on its technical prowess, industry data showed Sunday. According to research firm IHS iSuppli, Samsung sold some $2.31 billion worth of NAND flash memory used for smartphones and other mobile devices in the April-June period, accounting for 40.6 percent of the $5.66 billion in sales worldwide.The second-quarter stake represents a 3.2 percentage poin

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

Imports of Japanese steel continue to surge

South Korea’s imports of Japanese steel products increased for the first time in six months in September as the weak yen helped push down their prices, ringing alarm bells for local steelmakers that are already facing falling profitability amid low demand, industry data showed Sunday.According to the Korea Iron and Steel Association, South Korea imported a total of 678,000 tons of Japanese steel products, mostly steel plates, last month, up 10.7 percent from a year earlier.Local steelmakers led

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

S. Korean economy to face tougher times: poll

The majority of South Koreans thinks the national economy will remain mired in a slump and face difficult times, a nationwide poll carried out by a leading business association said Sunday.The survey, conducted on 800 people over age 19, showed 73.2 percent of the respondents expressing pessimism about the state of the economy down the road with quite a few expecting things to get worse, the Federation of Korean Industries said. Of the total, 20.4 percent thought the economy will head downhill.

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

Security service firms fined for hampering competition

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Sunday that it has fined two major security and safety service providers a combined 5 billion won ($4.7 million) for hampering market competition through years-long covert cooperation.S1 Corp., an affiliate of Samsung Group, and ADT CAPS were fined 2.5 billion won each for sharing their equipment in provincial regions with a promise not to compete against each other in those areas, according to the Fair Trade Commission. The equipment sharing took place from

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

Samsung Group heiress files for divorce

Lee Boo-jinLee Boo-jin, the eldest daughter of Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, is going through divorce proceedings, the company said Saturday.Ending a 15-year marriage, the 44-year-old CEO of Hotel Shilla, the group’s hotel unit, filed for divorce mediation with her husband Im Woo-jae, at the Seongnam branch of Suwon District Court on Wednesday, according to the company. Im serves as vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics. Born in 1968, Im joined Samsung C&T in 1995 and met the younger

Industry Oct. 12, 2014

[Weekender] Traditional baby clothes find niche with modern look

Traditional handmade baby clothes with a modern twist are gaining popularity through word-of-mouth in the high-end baby wear market.“One-hundred percent hand-sewn baby clothes using traditional Korean fabric seem to appeal to moms, who look for items offering unique design and comfort to their newborn baby,” said Kang Keum-seong, who runs Viin Baby, a newborn baby wear brand based on the design of the traditional Korean hanbok. Kang, a famous traditional Korean patchwork “jogakbo” designer, debu

Industry Oct. 10, 2014

[Weekender] Traditional baby clothes find niche with modern look

Growth in air travel drives jet orders: Boeing

A visiting commercial aircraft market specialist forecast that the industry would continue to experience a boom in business, driven by a steady growth in plane orders over the next two decades. “As we look at the global aviation market, it’s a good market. Frankly, it is getting better,” Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a press conference at the Conrad Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial A

Industry Oct. 8, 2014

Growth in air travel drives jet orders: Boeing

KOGAS seeks to bring global gas event to Daegu

The top management of state-run Korea Gas Corp. has been in Europe since the start of this month to help Daegu win its bid to host the 2021 World Gas Conference, the company said Tuesday. Visitors browse at exhibition booths set up at the 2014 Gastech Conference and Exhibition held from March 24-27 at KINTEX in Gyeonggi Province. KOGASDaegu, where KOGAS has moved its headquarters to from Seoul last month, served as the venue for the 22nd World Energy Congress in October last year.“The Gas Intern

Industry Oct. 7, 2014

KOGAS seeks to bring global gas event to Daegu

(Photo News) Wider reach

Yu Kun-ha (right), head of the digital service center at Herald Corp., poses after signing a partnership agreement with Kim Kyu-tae, the senior managing director of the Association of High Potential Enterprises of Korea. The two sides will cooperate to globally promote Korean mid-sized firms. (Yoon Byung-chan/The Korea Herald)

Industry Oct. 6, 2014

SK begins lubricant production in Spain

SK Innovation, the holding company of SK Group’s energy sector, announced on Monday the start of commercial operations of its lubricant production plant in Cartagena, Spain, as part of the company’s aim toward globalization. “With the production line in Spain, SK Lubricants has become the world’s third-largest lubricant oil producer behind Exxon Mobil and Shell, with an expanded daily output of 70,800 barrels,” SK Innovation said in a press release. “The joint investment in Spain is helping SK L

Industry Oct. 6, 2014

Seoul shares close lower on currency woes

South Korean stocks extended their loss to the seventh consecutive day on Monday as the won’s sharp decline to the U.S. dollar stoked concerns of an outflow of foreign capital from the local stock market, analysts said. The local currency dropped against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 7.86 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,968.30. Trading volume was moderate at 315 million shares worth 4.2 trillion won ($3.93 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers, 483 to 357

Oct. 6, 2014

Articles by Seo Jee-yeon