With the rising popularity of car camping in South Korea, the pickup truck market in the country has surged in recent years, up from around 22,000 vehicles sold in 2017 to 42,000 in 2018. The trend has only grown with the COVID-19 pandemic as more people are opting for outdoor and social-distancing activities that require larger storage and stronger off-road driving capacity. Leading the segment is SsangYong Motor’s Rexton Sports, which pioneered the Korean market for open-deck sports

Mobility Aug. 25, 2020

Hyundai Motor ranked first in satisfaction for high-tech automobiles in the US mass market, according to the latest survey of US research firm JD Power on Tuesday. Hyundai ranked highest in the mass-market segment with a score of 556, offering an above-average level of technologies and scoring well for excellence in execution. Subaru (541) ranked second, followed by Kia (538), Nissan (534) and Ram (520). In the luxury segment, Genesis (559) placed sixth. Volvo ranked highest overall with an

Mobility Aug. 25, 2020

Apple has pledged 100 billion won ($84 million) to correct its business practices in South Korea by sharing advertising costs with mobile carriers and by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, the antitrust watchdog said Monday. The Fair Trade Commission said it had prepared a tentative agreement through consultations with Apple Korea after the US tech giant applied for a consent order June 4. The consent order initiated a process to close an FTC case against Apple by voluntarily agr

Industry Aug. 24, 2020

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco said it aimed to provide premium value to customers with its new construction steel brand Innovilt, which launched in November last year. The name Innovilt is a combination of innovation, value and built, which means to increase the value of construction steel materials through technological innovation, eco-friendliness and originality, Posco said. Construction steel materials are used in buildings and other infrastructure projects, such as roads

Industry Aug. 23, 2020

Expectations among Korean construction companies are high as the Korea Rural Community Corporation completed the design of a seawall project to prevent flood damage in Jakarta, Indonesia, in July and is set to submit a final report to the local government by the end of this year. In Indonesia, due to ground subsidence caused by rising sea levels and underground water development, the Jakarta coast is sinking 18 centimeters on average every year. Even when dikes are built, seawater repeatedly cr

Industry Aug. 23, 2020

GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem visited the automaker’s Changwon plant on Thursday to review the investment status of its next-generation products, the firm said Friday. GM Korea said, “The visit was made to check whether facility investment for new global products is progressing as planned amid the uncertainty in the business environment, such as heavy rain, heat wave and the pandemic. Kazem and a group of officials visited the construction site to monitor safety compliance and whethe

Mobility Aug. 21, 2020

As the coronavirus has resurged rapidly in the Greater Seoul area in recent days, industries are on alert again, fearing their business could face another bout of shutdowns. Many major companies resumed their remote work policies, or have flexible working hours to protect their workplace. Most large firms, including Samsung, LG, SK, KT, Posco and Hyundai Motor have a painful history of closing down their plants and office buildings due to coronavirus patients when the pandemic peaked in spr

Industry Aug. 20, 2020

Kia Motors has lost a nine-year wage lawsuit filed by workers as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the employees on Thursday. The automaker has to pay about 50 billion won ($42 million) to its 3,521 union members. In 2011, about 27,000 employees of Kia Motors filed a lawsuit claiming that overtime, night, holiday and annual leave allowances should be recalculated after including regular bonuses, daily expenses and lunch expenses in ordinary wages. The workers claimed around 1 trillion won

Mobility Aug. 20, 2020

South Korea’s conglomerates increased their investment in the first half of this year despite a drop in operating profit due to the pandemic, data showed Wednesday. Local corporate tracker CEOScore analyzed 374 companies within 64 large business groups in the first half of this year. The result showed that the firms’ operating profit dropped 25 percent on average year-on-year in the wake of the pandemic. Still, their investments increased 15.8 percent to reach 43.2 trillion won

Industry Aug. 20, 2020

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo has been selected as one of the 100 sustainable global leaders in 2020 by the United Nations, the organization said Wednesday. Koo was named in the list of the Global Sustainable Leaders 100 as selected by the Association for Supporting the SDGs for the UN under the United Nations Economic and Social Council. 　 Other selected global leaders include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Korean corpor

Industry Aug. 19, 2020

Posco International is set to boost online trading of steel in partnership with local steel e-commerce operators, the firm said Wednesday. The trading firm said it signed a business agreement with four steel e-commerce operators, Sinsteel, Chungnam Steel, Daeduck Steel and Steelman Networks. Through the agreement, they plan to connect each company’s sites in the form of banners on the online transaction site Steel Trade -- which was opened by Posco International in November last year

Industry Aug. 19, 2020

An organizing committee for the Korea-World Chinese Entrepreneurs Business Week 2020 was launched by Changwon City, the regional government said on Wednesday. The Korea-World Chinese Entrepreneurs Business Week 2020 is a business-oriented event that provides a venue for global Chinese enterprises and Korean companies to interact with each other. It will be held for three days from Nov. 12 to 14 at the Changwon Exhibition and Convention Center. The event will be hosted by South Gyeongsa

Industry Aug. 19, 2020

Kumho Tire has retained its No. 1 spot in domestic sales by supplying tires for new small sport utility vehicles, the tire maker said Tuesday. Currently, small SUVs have been steadily gaining popularity in South Korea’s auto market with their reasonable price and good performance. Kumho Tire said it has recently supplied new tires to the majority of the popular compact SUVs, including Renault Samsung XM3 and Kia Motors Seltos. Kia Seltos’ 16- and 17-inch wheels and Renault Sam

Mobility Aug. 18, 2020

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has ordered the world’s No. 1 electric vehicle maker Tesla to correct unfair terms and conditions related to automobile sales here, officials said Tuesday. They included Tesla having buyers fully responsible for picking up the vehicle or for any damage inflicted on the vehicle during the purchase. Tesla, which entered Korea in 2017 with premium electric vehicles, Model S and Model X, has seen its sales surge since the launch of entry-level Model 3

Mobility Aug. 18, 2020

Hyundai Motor and local chicken franchise Genesis BBQ are engaged in a lawsuit over the trademark rights of “Genesis.” Hyundai Motor, which launched the Genesis brand in 2015, has been in a legal battle with BBQ for dozens of trademark rights since 2016. The automaker has been asking for the cancellation of the trademark rights held by BBQ in some areas. The automaker was allowed to use the Genesis brand only related to automobiles because BBQ had registered trademark rights for

Industry Aug. 17, 2020