Hyundai Motor said Wednesday it will hire staff from abroad year-round by replacing its annual regular recruitment to boost workforce in the fields of future mobility. The move is intended to select talented workers more timely in line with the rapidly changing business environment in the auto industry. Recruitment areas this year include autonomous driving, power electronics, fuel cell, future energy, robotics, artificial intelligence, software and big data. The candidates are required have

Mobility July 8, 2020

South Korean and Spanish business experts discussed potential partnerships, especially in digital and green technologies, at a virtual conference on Tuesday. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry held the 21st Korea-Spain Economic Cooperation Committee meeting online in collaboration with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce. The meeting comes after a phone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and King Felipe VI of Spain last month. It aims to serve as an opportunity to build momentum

Industry July 7, 2020

Smartphone usage among South Koreans increased in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Monday. According to a survey of 1,017 adult men and women nationwide conducted by local civic group Korean Addiction Forum last month, 44.3 percent of the respondents said smartphone usage time has increased -- either slightly or greatly -- since the implementation of social distancing measures. Among the increase of content, social media and messaging accounted for the largest proportion wi

Industry July 7, 2020

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong stressed the spirit of challenge toward the future at a meeting with employees in the startup program C Lab at the firm’s Suwon office in Gyeonggi Province on Monday. C-Lab is the South Korean tech firm’s in-house incubation program introduced in 2012 aimed at spreading creative organizational culture. Participating executives and employees will be given the opportunity to implement creative ideas they have come up with for one year.

Technology July 6, 2020

South Korea’s online shopping transactions have surged in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak. According to data released by Statistics Korea, online shopping transactions totaled 12.72 trillion won ($10.60 billion) in May, up 13.1 percent from a year earlier. The figure is the second-largest after 12.85 trillion won in November last year. Among the online transactions, mobile shopping transactions stood at 8.69 trillion won, up 21 percent year-on-year. Mobile shopping accounted fo

Industry July 6, 2020

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, concerns are growing that the nation’s food supply chain may become disrupted if the pandemic is prolonged, adding weight to the calls for establishing a national food procurement system. Last month, United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said even in countries with abundant food resources, COVID-19 risks disrupting food supply chains. “Our food systems are failing and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse,” he said. In

Industry July 5, 2020

Major Japanese firms doing business here have seen sales plunge as Japan’s export restrictions on Korea led to a boycott of products, the latest data showed Sunday. Local corporate tracker CEOScore compared the business performance of 31 Japanese consumer goods companies here before and after Japan imposed export curbs on Korea in July last year. The comparison found that average revenue fell 6.9 percent and operating profit plunged 71.3 percent last year compared to a year earlier. Th

Industry July 5, 2020

Daejanggeum Park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, is one of the largest open sets in South Korea, where period dramas, movies and commercials are filmed.  It is a semipermanent set that has been modeled after the architectural styles and traditional Korean houses of the Three Kingdoms period, Goryeo kingdom and Joseon era.  Starting with the production of the drama “Shindon” in 2005, numerous dramas and movies, including “Daejanggeum,” “Jumong” and

Culture July 4, 2020

GS Caltex is expanding an upcycling method that goes further than simply recycling plastic waste and creates new value by mixing materials. The firm said it plans to increase the production of compounded resin made from recycled plastic waste to streamline resources and reduce carbon emissions. Compound resin is a functional plastic widely used as a raw material for automotive and home appliance parts. If plastic waste is recycled to produce compounded resin instead of being incinerated, c

Industry July 2, 2020

South Korean and European business experts held an online forum Thursday to discuss ways to jointly respond to challenges in the wake of the pandemic and strengthen cooperation in areas such as future mobilities, secondary batteries and bio-health. As a follow-up event to the summit between the two regions, the EU-Korea Virtual Business Conference 2020 was jointly hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea. The conference aimed to discus

Industry July 2, 2020

Most managers in South Korean companies are of the view that telecommuting has either improved work efficiency and employee satisfaction or remains unchanged, a new survey showed Tuesday. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry surveyed personnel managers of 300 Korean companies on the status of remote work that is in force due to the new coronavirus outbreak. Around 83.6 percent said work efficiency was similar or has improved while 16.4 percent of the respondents said it has declined.

Industry July 2, 2020

HMM said Wednesday it held a naming ceremony for the world’s largest container ship HMM Hamburg. It is the fifth of the seven ships that HMM ordered from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. The South Korean shipping firm is slated to receive a total of 12 24,000 TEU-class ships -- seven from DSME and five from Samsung Heavy Industries -- by September this year. Among the 12 ships, six vessels have already been deployed on European routes so far, including HMM Algeciras, which

Mobility July 1, 2020

South Korea’s 500 largest companies by assets have expanded their investments in startups with high technologies since 2015, latest data showed Wednesday. Local corporate tracker CEOScore said their investments in startups increased more than 10-fold from 118.2 billion won ($98 million) in 2015 to 1.2 trillion won last year, with the total amount reaching 2.7 trillion won over the past five years. By sector, large investments were made in shared mobility, green cars, artificial intellig

Industry July 1, 2020

The European Chamber of Commerce in Korea has appointed Dirk Lukat, CEO of Schenker Korea, as the new chairperson, the organization said Tuesday. Lukat is a German citizen and has been the CEO of Schenker Korea in Seoul since January 2015. He will represent the ECCK and oversee its operations and activities, effective July 1, 2020. The new leader started his career at Schenker & Co. in Frankfurt in 1986 and held management positions at DB Schenker in Singapore, Vietnam and India. Befor

Industry June 30, 2020

Experts said Monday the current trade restrictions imposed by Japan on South Korea should be alleviated as strengthened cooperation in material, parts and equipment will lead to greater economic value. Speaking at a seminar hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries, they noted that closer cooperation between both countries could generate added value worth $123 billion. The seminar aimed to explore the economic impact of Japan’s export regulations on three major high-tech raw materi

Industry June 29, 2020