Ikea Korea will not raise product prices in the next 12 months, sticking to its policy of offering quality products at low prices, the Swedish furniture giant’s Korean unit said Thursday. Holding an online press conference, the firm also revealed that in the fiscal year ending this month, it has seen a 23 percent jump in consumer visits to both online and offline stores but sales growth stood at a disappointing 3.4 percent. In the previous fiscal year, the company had reported about 30 p

Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation has revamped its scholarship program to foster 1,100 talents in the next five years, the foundation said Wednesday. Renamed Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Scholarship, the scholarships will support talented people in five different categories: global, future industry, international cooperation, social innovation, and art and culture. The foundation seeks to provide the recipients not only with financial support, but with education opportunities to groom t

HanmiGlobal, a South Korean construction project management service provider, has been named one of the world’s top 10 players in the field in a global survey, the company said Tuesday. It ranked 10th in the top 20 non-US firms in total global CM/PM fees in the 2021 ENR Top International Survey, released by Engineering News Record. CM refers to construction management and PM, project management. It climbed up a notch in the ranking from the previous year, as it achieved a combined $24

Kyochon F&B, the firm behind South Korea’s biggest fried chicken franchise Kyochon Chicken, is deploying chicken-frying robots, the company said Tuesday. According to Kyochon, the first such machine has started work at one of its franchise stores in Songdo, Incheon. Kyochon double fries its chicken to create a unique crisp texture, and the robots will take charge of the second act, the firm said. Developed jointly with Doosan Robotics, the machine is a cooperative robot that can

Accommodation booking app Yanolja won a compensation suit it filed against a local rival for stealing confidential company information, according to a regional court Monday. The Seoul Central District Court ordered Good Choice Company, the firm behind the accommodation booking platform of the same name, to pay 1 billion won ($852,300) to Yanolja as compensation for its theft of Yanolja’s business data. The court said Good Choice gained profit from using information gathered from Yanol

Han Sung Motor has donated 20 million won ($17,028) earned from running Dream Gream online merch store and more to 10 youth shelters around the country, the official Mercedes-Benz dealer said Monday. The auto dealership opened the online store offering merchandise made by students participating in its Dream Gream art scholarship program in June. As part of its social outreach efforts, Han Sung Motor has been supporting middle and high school students with artistic talents through the progra

Namyang Dairy Products Chairman Hong Won-sik, who pledged to resign from the top post of the dairy firm due to a scandal in May, turns out to have reversed the decision to maintain his post, the company’s half-year report showed Thursday. According to the report, Hong remains registered as the chairman of the company as a full-time employee, and he was paid a total of 808 million won ($682,685) in the first half of this year. On May 4, Hong publicly announced he would resign after the

Korean Air plans to replace its A380-800 and B747-8I aircraft with smaller planes to increase efficiency, the carrier’s chief executive officer said Thursday. Cho Won-tae, the chairman of Hanjin Group and Korean Air CEO, said he has confirmed the plan to ditch the Airbus A380-800 in the next five years and Boeing’s 747-8I over the next 10 years in an interview with FlightGlobal. Korean Air currently owns 10 units of both the A380-800 with 407 seats and the B747-8i with 368 seats.

First launched in 1948, Jaguar Land Rover’s legendary off-roader Defender has made a grand comeback with a completely new look. At first glance, the makeover gives the Defender 90 a futuristic look yet embraces enough of its original features to retain its identity as the iconic sport utility vehicle specializing in off-road driving. One of the most noticeable changes was the round edges of the four-wheel car’s contour, which used to be sharp and angular in the original models.

Hyundai Motor’s two automotive affiliates, Hyundai Motor and Kia, started a car-hailing service for the elderly and the disabled in the United States, as part of its universal mobility project, the automaker said Wednesday. The South Korean automotive group said it has launched the service, dubbed EnableLA in Los Angeles, with wheelchair-compatible vehicles for passengers. Those who want to use the service can hire a car via a mobile app or calling, and a specially trained chauff

Kumho Tire is supplying two different types of tires that have been applied with noise-cutting technology for Kia’s electric vehicle EV6, the tire maker said Tuesday. For a quiet driving experience, Kumho Tire said it is providing its Crugen HP71 and Ecsta PS71 for the EV6. The two models have been applied with K-Silent technology, which the company developed in 2014. Kumho Tire said the technology has been patented in Korea and other countries. The K-Silent tires are made with porous

With the Chuseok fall harvest holiday just about a month away, convenience stores are rolling out some of the most unexpected luxury gift sets to attract customers. On Tuesday, CU, a leading convenience store chain here, said it is presenting some 500 Chuseok holiday gift sets in 16 product categories, including yachts and imported cars. BGF Retail, the firm behind the convenience store chain, said it is rolling out six different Bavaria brand yachts from Hyundai Yachts, with prices varying

Lotte Engineering & Construction has been chosen as the preferred bidder to build a general hospital in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, as part of the city’s urban development project. According to the construction arm of Lotte Group, a consortium consisting of seven companies, including Lotte E&C, has been chosen for the H2 Project. Other companies participating in the consortium include Kumho Engineering & Construction and the Industrial Bank of Korea. Following the selection,

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group is to complete payment for the acquisition of Doosan Infracore this week, in a deal that would put the ship-focused group atop of the country’s construction equipment industry, according to industry officials Monday. In February, the group’s holdings company formed a consortium with KDB Investment and signed a contract to buy a controlling 34 percent stake in Doosan Infracore, held by Doosan Heavy Industries. It agreed to pay 850 billion won ($730 mi

The Fair Trade Commission is expected to decide next month on punitive actions against major shippers following allegations that shipping lines from both home and abroad have rigged freight charges. According to government sources on Sunday, the FTC plans to hold a full-member meeting to discuss whether the accused 23 companies colluded to raise shipping costs for service on a Southeast Asian sea route. The allegation was first reported to the FTC by importers in the timber industry in 2018.

South Korean car-sharing platform Green Car will expand its advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) to its entire fleet of cars by the end of 2022 for a safer and more convenient driving experience, the firm said Friday. According to Green Car, about 85 percent of the vehicles it currently manages for its car-sharing service are equipped with each of the car models’ standard ADAS functions. The ADAS functions include autonomous emergency braking, smart cruise control and lane departur

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering signed a 659.2 billion won ($577 million) deal to build an offshore plant for an American oil company, the South Korean shipbuilder said Friday. In a regulatory filing, KSOE said it would undertake the first phase of construction for an offshore crude oil storage facility under the deal. The company declined to reveal the client. The envisioned semi-submersible floating production storage platform is to measure 91 meters in length, 91 meters in wi

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission will hold a final review on Sept. 1 on allegations that Google had exploited its market dominance to coerce Korean device manufacturers and wireless carriers to use its Android operating system, shutting out rivals, the state antitrust watchdog said Thursday. It will be the third full-member meeting that the commission holds on the issue. At the Sept. 1 session, commissioners are expected to finalize whether to penalize the US firm, and if so, the co

Pinkfong, the creator behind the globally popular “Baby Shark” videos, received the Ruby Play Button from YouTube for notching over 50 million subscribers, the South Korean firm said Thursday. The Ruby Play Button, which is awarded to YouTubers with over 50 million subscribers, is custom-made instead of the usual plaque design for lower milestones. Pinkfong, which produces animated movies and clips featuring various children‘s songs, received an award shaped like a column of

The way people buy cars is changing. As people become more familiar with shopping online amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the sentimental barrier against purchasing high-value items, and even cars, online is lowering. Seeing the changing trend, global automotive companies are moving fast to market their vehicles online, setting up online stores and coming up with online transaction systems. The latest to do so was Peugeot, which announced Wednesday it is offering a limited number of 100 e-2008s,