South Korea and Norway have agreed to strengthen ties in hydrogen energy and shipbuilding areas with the summit between the two countries’ heads of state serving as an opportunity to pursue future partnerships. During President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Norway on Thursday, the two nations signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in hydrogen energy to make the most of Korea’s strength in hydrogen-powered vehicles and Norway’s in production and supply capabilities.Wit

Industry June 13, 2019

South Korean oil refiner S-Oil appointed Hussain A. Al-Qahtani as new CEO during its general shareholders meeting, the firm said Thursday. Before joining the firm, Al-Qahtani, 52, served as president and CEO of Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company from 2016. Throughout his 29-year career at Saudi Aramco, Al-Qahtani has assumed key roles in production, engineering and projects building expertise and leadership skills, according to the firm. The new Saudi Arabian CEO majored in chemical engine

Industry June 13, 2019

South Korean oil and chemical company SK Innovation plans to support local social ventures through crowdfunding, the firm said Wednesday.A social venture is a firm that focuses more on addressing social problems and less on profit. Selected social ventures will be supported by SK Innovation employees through crowdfunding. Each employee can voluntarily invest up to 1 million won ($846) in the social ventures. For every 1 million won raised, SK will match the investment. Profits will later be

Industry June 12, 2019

Ending a five-month-long probe into energy storage systems that caught fire, the South Korean government blamed defects in devices, poor management and systems, without holding companies accountable for the fires.On Tuesday, a private-public joint committee, formed in January to look into the series of fires, announced the results of the probe, saying multiple factors played a role in the 23 fires that occurred over the past year. It highlighted four factors: a lack of battery protective systems

Industry June 11, 2019

South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, and its locomotive arm, Hyundai Rotem, are slated to develop a hydrogen-powered tram by 2020, which will be the first of its kind in the nation. On Monday, Hyundai Rotem said the two companies had agreed to cooperate on developing a train powered by hydrogen. Hyundai Motor plans to deploy hydrogen fuel cell stacks on trains developed and manufactured by Hyundai Rotem, which will also build the system interface to be installed between train ca

Industry June 10, 2019

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco plans to support small steel companies to build their smart factories, investing 20 billion won ($16.9 million) over the next five years, according to the company on Sunday. A total of 30 billion won in investment -- including 10 billion won from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups -- will be injected to help around 500 selected companies, Posco said.  Through the project, companies willing to build smart factories will be provided with up to 100 m

Industry June 9, 2019

South Korea’s increasingly stringent environmental regulations are hobbling its steel industry, already beset by falling sales and rising raw material prices. Last week, three regional governments representing South Chungcheong Province, North Gyeongsang Province and South Jeolla Province insisted that local steel companies Posco and Hyundai Steel halt their steel mills for 10 days over violations of the Clean Air Conservation Act.  The provincial governments said Posco’s steel

Industry June 9, 2019

Will robots replace human workforce?That is a question constantly raised with the advancement of new technologies that make robots smarter and more autonomous. That is, however, “undue concern,” says the chief of South Korea’s state-run robot institute, who has been in the industry for more than 30 years. “Technological developments to make a human-like robot is still in the early stages worldwide,” Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement President Moon Jeon-

Industry June 6, 2019

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday joined a test drive of the nation’s first city bus powered by hydrogen and developed for commercial use, demonstrating his administration’s drive to nurture the development of fuel-cell electric vehicles. The president took the nation’s first hydrogen bus planned for regular intracity bus service at an event held on the sidelines of World Environment Day in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. It was the third test drive of hydrogen cars for M

Industry June 5, 2019

South Korea will toughen sanctions on habitual tax delinquents who owe huge sums, amid growing public criticism over the problem. “The government plans to toughen sanctions on taxpayers who habitually owe taxes despite being (financially) capable of paying, as public anger grows over the individuals who conceal their assets and live in luxury,” said a joint statement issued Wednesday by the ministries of finance, safety, health, law, justice, tax and customs. Beginning next year

Industry June 5, 2019

Korea International Trade Association Chairman Kim Young-ju (left) and Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo attend the opening ceremony of Startup Branch on Tuesday at Coex in southern Seoul.  The space, divided into four areas -- offices, a pitching center, a consultation area and a cafeteria -- is designed to run programs that help local startups advance overseas. 

Industry June 4, 2019

South Korea’s largest job fair for foreign companies began on Tuesday at Coex in Seoul, with 159 firms readying to recruit young job seekers. The two-day annual career expo with the largest number of participating companies this year is co-hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Seoul Metropolitan Government and co-organized by Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and Financial Supervisory Service. The companies include Hewlett Packard Korea, Tokyo Electron Kore

Industry June 4, 2019

Shareholders of Hyundai Heavy Industries on Friday approved a split-up plan of the company amid intense opposition from the labor union.The split is the first step for the country’s largest shipbuilder to carry out its proposed merger with runner-up Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.In March this year, HHI signed a deal with Korea Development Bank to acquire DSME for 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion). The state-run bank is the largest shareholder of cash-strapped DSME, with a 55.7 p

Industry May 31, 2019

Google has changed terms and conditions related to copyright infringement on its video-streaming platform YouTube at the request of South Korea’s antitrust watchdog, the government said Thursday. The Fair Trade Commission said the US tech firm had changed eight terms and conditions in a follow-up to the request in March. The authorities had asked for the revision of clauses that allowed YouTube to arbitrarily delete and reuse videos posted by users.Under the revised terms, if a user’

Industry May 30, 2019

Protests by the workers of Hyundai Heavy Industries against a tie-up with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering are escalating, with labor unions of Hyundai Motor and DSME joining the strike on Wednesday. Two days ahead of HHI’s shareholders meeting to decide on modalities of the merger, the workers’ protests intensified by occupying the venue and staging an all-out strike to disrupt the meeting. If the proposal for physical division of the company after merger is passed

Industry May 29, 2019