Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo left for Europe on Tuesday to oversee the Russian, Slovakian and Czech markets hit by the Brexit vote, the company’s official said. The chairman plans to visit the automaker’s factories in the three nations to monitor sales and market conditions. “We should make a breakthrough starting from the European market, which is expected to see record-breaking sales this year, amid slow growth in the global auto market,” Chung said in the company’s statement. “

Mobility Aug. 2, 2016

Memory chipmakers -- Samsung Electronics and SK hynix -- are spurring investment as Chinese tech giants are making an aggressive push into the semiconductor business backed by their government, analysts said.Chinese conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup recently acquired half of the state-run chipmaker XMC. The tie-up is viewed by industry watchers as helping China move toward the goal of self-sufficiency in memory chips. Tsinghua Unigroup reportedly plans to set up memory chip factories with an invest

Technology Aug. 2, 2016

A local start-up has accused South Korean Internet search giant Naver of copying its photo and video-editing app. Seerslab alleged that Naver’s Snow app copied the image and camera functions of its photo-editing app Lollicam. Naver’s Snow is a photo app that enables users to take photos with face-tracking “stickers” and share them with friends. The app has hit 40 million downloads so far since it was first launched in September. Seerslab claims that Snow’s imaging functions, “stickers” and backg

Technology Aug. 1, 2016

The chiefs of the financial arms of major conglomerates -- including Samsung, Hyundai and Hanwha groups -- will face eligibility screenings as the government recently toughened regulations on managing financial companies, officials said Sunday.Under the nation’s revised corporate governance law, major shareholders of nonbanking financial entities, such as credit card, insurance and securities firms, are subject to periodic review by the Financial Services Commission on whether they are eligible

Industry July 31, 2016

South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor has advised its employees to take vacation in the nation to boost domestic tourism, the company said Sunday. “We have prepared diverse programs to support vacations for the employees of the group and partner companies, as well as clients,” the company’s spokesperson said in a statement, adding, “We hope the programs will boost domestic tourism and consumption.”(123rf)The automaker said it plans to run resorts nationwide for around 150,000 employees t

Mobility July 31, 2016

South Korea’s most popular messenger Kakao’s transport services are picking up speed, spanning the gamut from taxi-hailing to navigation. “We are expanding transport services with the aim of relieving customers’ daily inconveniences through mobile services,” the company’s spokesperson said.  (Kakao)Kakao Taxi, which was launched in March last year, is a popular service, with 150 million calls in total made through it so far. The taxi-hailing service has also raised drivers’ incomes by effectivel

Technology July 28, 2016

Samsung Electronics posted its best quarterly results in more than two years and it expects continued solid performance in the latter half of this year. The tech giant said Thursday it posted 8.1 trillion won ($7.2 billion) in operating profit in the second quarter, an 18 percent jump on-year. Revenue for the quarter rose 4.9 percent to 50 trillion won.The growth was mainly driven by its mobile business, which posted 4.3 trillion won in operating income. Its flagship smartphone Galaxy S7 series

Technology July 28, 2016

LG Display’s latest plan to make an additional investment in plastic organic light-emitting diodes indicates that Samsung and LG would be double vendors for Apple’s new iPhone to be unveiled in 2018, industry sources said Wednesday. LG Display said Wednesday it plans to invest around 2 trillion won ($1.76 billion) -- equivalent to around 15 percent of the display-maker’s equity capital -- to produce around 15,000 plastic OLED sheets per month in its Paju plant. LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom speak

Technology July 27, 2016

[THE INVESTOR] Hyundai Motor, the world’s fifth-largest carmaker, said it posted a second-quarter operating profit of 1.76 trillion won ($1.54 billion), up 0.6 percent on-year. Compared to the first quarter of 2016, operating profit rose 31.2 percent, the carmaker said Tuesday.Sales rose 8.1 percent to 24.67 trillion won -- the highest in terms of second-quarter figures. In total Hyundai sold 1,285,860 units during the cited period. “An improved sales mix, combined with increased car finance rev

Mobility July 26, 2016

[News Analysis] Samsung Electronics’ latest plan to expand its research and development center in Austin, Texas, demonstrates its efforts to secure talents on its future businesses such as driverless cars or artificial intelligence, analysts said Tuesday.Samsung Austin R&D Center, which develops system large-scale integration for premium mobile devices, said last week it would be relocating its offices from its current location at Ladera Bend to a new, larger and updated 112,000-square-foot spac

Technology July 26, 2016

Japanese hybrid cars are eating into German diesel cars’ share in the Korea’s foreign car market, following a series of emissions and mileage scandals, according to market analysts. The combined sales of German brands -- BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi and Volkswagen -- declined by 9 percent in the first half year-on-year, with their market share going down 4.6 percent to 64.2 percent, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association.The fall was mainly led by the sales decline of

Mobility July 25, 2016

The nation’s leading chemical and battery firm LG Chem is set to triple its elastomer output to meet the growing demand in the global market, the company said on Monday. LG Chem said it would invest 400 billion won ($351 million) to build additional factories, which will be capable of producing 200,000 metric tons of elastomers on an annual basis. Elastomer is high-valued synthetic resins, which is used for materials for cars, shoes, functional films and electric wire. When the plants are comple

Technology July 25, 2016

Korea’s top oil refiner SK Innovation on Friday reported a 6.5 percent increase in net profit in the second quarter led by its petro-chemical business. Its net profit reached 626 billion won ($551 million), compared with 588 billion won a year earlier, the company said. Operating income rose 12 percent to 1.12 trillion won and sales jumped 21 percent to 10.28 trillion won. The company attributed the strong performance to its petro-chemical business which benefited from lower oil prices.  SK Inno

Industry July 22, 2016

Kim Young-pill (third from right), a president of Green Cross Medical Science, a subsidiary of Korean biopharmaceutical company Green Cross, poses with foreign clients, who attended the conference held at its headquarters located in Yongin City on Thursday. (Green Cross Medical Science)　　

Technology July 22, 2016

Multinational manufacturer 3M apologized for the uproar over the detection of a toxic substance in its air purifier filters, and promised to start a recall on Friday.The apology comes after weeks of silence following the first reports of potentially harmful toxins in the company’s filters.3M(Yonhap)“We sincerely apologize for the concern that we have caused consumers and our client companies over the results of the Environmental Ministry’s investigation announced on Wednesday,” the statement rea

Industry July 22, 2016