Some wire home 90 percent of profits while making zero charity donationsFailing to bear corporate social responsibility ethics among foreign luxury brands has prompted criticism from both consumers and the business community. The Financial Supervisory Service and online conglomerate tracker chaebul.com released financial reports in August of foreign luxury brands’ operating in Korea. Foreign luxury brands saw a large-scale increase in sales by about 270 percent, from 1.42 trillion won ($1.25 bil

Hike likely to surpass 30 percent; Seoul taxis’ minimum charge may exceed 3,000 wonPolicymakers hinted that the nation’s cab and inter-city bus minimum fares will rise by up to 33.3 percent alongside the general increase in food and energy prices. Express train and subway charges will remain the same. Government sources said on Sunday that the nationwide minimum taxi charges, which currently range from 2,200 won ($1.94) to 2,400 won, could possibly pass the 3,000 won mark after the upcoming pric

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea has remained undecided over whether it will close in response to the fine imposed by the Korean government for failing to report and pay income generated from its in-house magazine ad sales.The EUCCK said it has so far paid 1.9 billion won out of the 4.5 billion won ($4.0 million) fine to the tax authorities. The organization is currently divided over whether to take legal action over the National Tax Service’s penalty. One of the options is closin

Daelim Industrial Co. will be taking applications to buy units in its newly built apartment complex Yangdeok e-Pyunhansesang in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, from Aug. 17, the housing builder said on Wednesday. Built on about 32,500 square meters of land, the new complex has 637 apartments with five different areas ranging from 84 to 165 square meters. Daelim says that the Yangdeok region will form a new residential belt, connecting the 1.1-million-square-meter area with 7,570 households an

BMW AG and Hyundai Motor Co. outperformed other domestic and foreign auto companies in terms of operating margin in the first half of 2012, an auto research institute reported on Wednesday. According to the study conducted by the private Korea Automotive Research Institute, or KARI, German automaker BMW and Korean automaker Hyundai Motor vied closely with operating margins of 11.6 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.Kia Motors Corp., the nation’s second-largest carmaker, won third place with

The Asan Nanum Foundation announced Tuesday that it has selected the winners of its first annual entrepreneurship competition that commemorates Chung Ju-yung, the late founder of Hyundai Group. “Through the competition we became certain that what young people truly desire is not government-granted financial assistance, but the free ground to make decisions and exert their own potential,” said Rep. Chung Mong-joon, who is one of the sons of Hyundai Group’s founder and set up the charity organizat

ULAN BATOR ― On a vast expanse of grassy meadows in the suburbs, some 25 kilometers east of the Mongolian capital, a group of local teenagers shout and laugh while playing basketball and volleyball at a campsite.As one adult tells them it is time for their next class, they wrap up their games and rush to a one-story building on top of a hill overlooking the river, the mountains and a couple of Mongolian traditional nomadic dwellings, or yurts.The East-West Cultural Development Cooperation Counci

Kumho Tire has provided an injured Vietnamese worker with months of rehabilitation and medical treatment, so that he can return to work at the company’s plant in the Southeast Asian country and support his family, company officials said on Wednesday.The officials said Kumho Group chairman Park Sam-koo gave full support to Truong Vinh Thuan, who was at risk of being permanently paralyzed after a work accident in April.The worker was operating the power system at the Vietnamese plant when the top

The number of Korean vacationers leaving the country made a steep increase despite the economic slowdown at home, the nation’s two leading travel agencies said on Tuesday. Hanatour Service Inc. and Modetour agreed that the unusual heat is driving people away to the beaches in the Americas and Southeast Asia for a cool summer. The Olympic Games boosted summer breaks in Europe as well, they said. According to statistics from the two tourism giants, the number of vacationers who used these two agen

Asiana Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding with the nation’s leading online auction and commerce site G-market on adding a new flight mileage policy on Monday.According to the expanded mileage policy starting from Aug. 13, G-market customers who enter the e-shopping site directly at www.gmarket.co.kr can accumulate mileage points that correspond to the amount of their purchase. The new mileage policy is compatible with other G-market offers such as “G Mileage” and “G Stamp.”Before the

Local carmakers eager to ride the boom while import car brands remain cautiousThe nation’s economic slowdown is turning consumers toward small-sized cars, a trend likely to continue during the second half of this year, according to experts and government officials.Auto analysts said the 20-year-old small car market is growing bigger than ever, selling 124,450 compact and sub-compact cars in the first seven months of this year with a 15 percent growth on-year.They said the market has a high chanc

Money-losing carmaker starts voluntary redundancy program for first timeRenault Samsung, the Korean unit of French automotive group Renault S.A., is pushing for downsizing in a desperate effort to overcome its financial difficulties caused by its long sluggish sales in Korea.The carmaker said Friday that it began accepting applications for early retirement from its employees as part of its 2012 “revival” plan.It is the first time that Renault Samsung has implemented a redundancy program since t

Hanwha Chemical Corp., a key affiliate of Hanwha Group, is currently in the final stage of capping the acquisition deal of Germany’s Q-Cells SE, once the world’s No. 1 holder of the global solar-cell and module market share, industry sources said. Some Hanwha Group officials were quoted as saying Thursday that should there be no other extraordinary circumstances, Hanwha Chemical will be prioritized in the bid as soon as next week and take over the German solar energy firm as early as next month.

The Korea Consumer Agency released research data on Sunday on the amounts of different ingredients in coffee served in Korea, claiming cafes’ products are deceptive in volume, caffeine content and calories. The nation’s leading customer advocacy group said that despite high prices of coffee ― ranging from 3,000 won ($2.65) to 5,000 won ― the fast-growing industry offers insufficient information needed for customers to make their choices. The ten coffeehouse chains targeted in the study are nine

Online market transactions on imported petroleum products have rapidly increased due to the government’s tariff-lifting policy and other measures.The Ministry of Knowledge Economy lifted the 3-percent tariff on imported petroleum goods that are traded online in July 2012, three months after launching the online trade of imported oil goods on March 30. According to the ministry, the new tax policy boosted the average volume of daily trade of these goods by over eight-fold from April to July.The a

TOKYO (AP) ― Toyota raised its sales target for this year to a record 9.76 million vehicles and reported a strong recovery in quarterly profit Friday, underlining its bounce back from a disaster plagued 2011.Toyota Motor Corp. said April-June profit zoomed to 290.3 billion yen ($3.7 billion) from 1.1 billion yen the year before. Its new sales target would represent a 23 percent increase from the 7.95 million vehicles sold in 2011, and is 180,000 vehicles more than Toyota’s last forecast in Febru

Sales of air conditioners are booming thanks to the scorching weather and the Summer Olympic Games, electronic appliance companies said.“The extremely hot summer is the No. 1 reason for the air conditioner sales boom. The Olympics also contributed to the sales because these games are usually on during the night when people are back home from work,” said a spokesperson of LG Electronics. The boom is good news for AC manufacturers companies, especially as sales volume was cut almost in half in Jun

Janssen Korea became the first multinational medical firm in the country to name a woman CEO, the company said in a statement Thursday. The Korean branch of multinational firm Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. said that Kim Oak-yeon, 44, has accumulated rich experience as the former CEO of Janssen Malaysia, and is expected to become an even larger asset to the company. “I will make the best of my experience from working overseas so that Janssen Korea can take a step further in the fast-changing Korea

STX Group announced on Wednesday that it had formed a business partnership with Nonghyup Feed Co. in Portland, Oregon, to import U.S. corn for about one year starting November 2012. The partnership contract states that STX will be responsible for shipping about 700,000 tons of U.S. corn to Korea for livestock feed. The corn will be processed and distributed by Nonghyup Feed, which holds about an 18 percent share of the livestock feed market here. Among rising concerns regarding agflation ― a com

The world’s largest solar plant on water went into operation on Tuesday, paving the way for the commercialization of a new solar energy provider, said Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-water. The state-run water service company organized the three-year project in August 2008, and Korean industrial solutions firm LSIS undertook the plant construction in 2011 on Hapcheon Dam in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. “K-water plans to form partnerships with private firms for the standardization and o