BUSAN -- Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s leading automaker, unveiled for the first time its second design concept car, dubbed HDC-2 Grandmaster Concept, at the Busan International Motor Show opening this week, and introduced details for the high performance N brand.Portraying the direction of Hyundai’s future design strategy, the second design concept that takes the form of a sport utility vehicle is aimed to display “sensuous sportiness,” the automaker said.The unveiling took place on Thursday, a

With one of the biggest auto industry events in South Korea kicking off this week, the spotlight of the 2018 Busan International Motor Show will be on the world premiere of Mercedes-Benz’s EQ model and Hyundai Motors’ large sport utility vehicle concept.Held under the slogan “Beyond Innovation, Into the Future” the 10-day event opens Friday and runs through June 17 in the southeastern port city of Busan, with some 15 automakers displaying over 200 models, event organizer Busan Exhibition & Conve

Amid concerns of South Korea’s auto industry losing competitiveness due to high labor cost and low efficiency, Hyundai Motor and the Gwangju Metropolitan City Government have begun discussing a joint factory in Gwangju.Nine Hyundai working-level officials visited Gwangju earlier this week to inspect the site of the factory that is expected to complete construction by 2020. When built, it would create over 12,000 new jobs in the city, while lowering production cost for automakers by lowering wage

Ever felt a sense of total devastation? How about trying to push a giant SUV forward so that it can make room for your car to drive out of a parking spot in a triple-park situation -- while running late to work.Such a conundrum is routine for many Seoulites who live in a congested city with limited parking spots at their residences. To make things worse, such conflicts often lead to violent confrontations among neighbors. In South Korea, where cars are viewed as a symbol of socioeconomic status,

Posco will invest 1.1 trillion won ($101.9 million) for improved safety in the next three years, the company said Thursday. Its safety related budget has doubled after the death of four workers due to nitrogen gas inhalation at its steel mill in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, last January.A total 36.9 billion won will go to training safety professionals and setting up a safety control tower, 511.4 billion won will be spent on enhancing safety devices, and 11.4 billion won in educating partne

Hanwha Engineering & Construction has received $230 million from the Iraqi government for the Bismayah New City development project there, the company said Thursday.The latest payment includes outstanding payments from last year and part of this year’s contract fees.Hanwha E&C has so far received $3.4 billion out of the $10.1 billion contract. A bird’s eye view of the ongoing Bismayah New City construction (Hanwha Engineering & Construction)The firm won the construction deal with the Iraqi gover

Hyundai Motor Group retracted its spinoff merger plan for Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis on Monday, citing the views of the market and shareholders that had widely been against the move. Auto parts unit Mobis and logistics arm Glovis’ board of directors each called off the general meeting initially set for May 29, when the group’s reform plan announced in late March was to be put to a vote.Mobis and Glovis instead decided to revise and improve on the measures. “We will humbly review and suffic

Hyundai Mobis, the auto parts making arm of Hyundai Group at the center of the group’s restructuring plan, has canceled its upcoming general meeting, the company said Monday.Hyundai Mobis’ board of directors called off the meeting initially set for May 29, when the group’s spinoff merger plan would have been put to a vote. Starting with Elliott Management, which has been pressuring Hyundai to take the form of a holding company, there has been opposition from major proxy firms in and out of the c

Renault Samsung Motors, the local unit of French carmaker Renault S.A., has launched the Clio hatchback with an aim to start a new boom in the local compact car market, the company said Sunday.Clio is Renault’s best-selling car with about 14 million units sold worldwide since its release in 1990. Due to a lack of demand for hatchbacks here, where sedans and sport utility vehicles are highly preferred, Clio was introduced to Korean drivers last week. Renault Samsung Motors’ hatchback Clio (Renaul

Posco, South Korea’s No.1 steelmaker, took home two awards at this year’s S&P Global Platts Metals Awards for the first time among local steel companies, the company said Friday. Posco was named the winner in steel industry leadership, and received the grand Metal Company of the Year award at the ceremony held in London, attended by about 250 officials, the company said.S&P Global Platts, energy and commodities information provider, has been hosting the annual awards from 2013, recognizing compa

SEOSAN, South Chungcheong Province -- Hyundai Mobis, the auto parts making unit of Hyundai Motor Group, unveiled this week its test bed for autonomous vehicles and auto parts in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, with a mission to develop self-driving car sensors by 2020. Its long-term goal is to lead the future mobility market, and raise some 11 trillion won ($10 billion) in earnings through automated driving technology by 2025, according to the firm.The unveiling came amid growing attention o

GM Korea will give away 100 units of the Chevrolet Spark compact car to 100 winners of a promotional event until August in efforts to put the company back on track, the company said Tuesday.　The first winner of the “Chevy’s new start, with customers” event was Park Jae-seok, 31, who had been considering to purchase Spark for his wife on safety and design.GM Executive Vice President Barry Engle, GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem, GM Korea Vice President Dale Sullivan, and chief of GM Korea’s union Lim Han

BUPYEONG, Incheon -- GM Korea was forced to cancel a press conference on Monday after a group of 12 non-regular workers unexpectedly forced themselves into the conference room through the back door demanding a change in their status to regular workers.“On the day GM shut down the Gunsan plant, the Incheon District Court made a ruling (in the first trial) recognizing non-regular workers‘ status as regular workers. However we were excluded from negotiations (with the company),” Hwang Ho-in, head o

SINGAPORE -- Many people may not know that South Korea’s red ginseng entered the Southeast Asian market in the 1930s.Now amid growing awareness of healthful products and a rise in modern illnesses, Cheong Kwan Jang, the top-selling red ginseng brand by Korea Ginseng Corp., has been quietly making waves in other Asian markets. Its expanding presence, however, comes after years of efforts, according to the company, as it faced long-standing cultural perception surrounding red ginseng.“Definitely w

SINGAPORE -- While ginseng products have long been consumed by all age groups in South Korea, the spreading of information on their convenience and benefits has relied mostly on word of mouth.With a gradual rise in the popularity of ginseng products overseas, Korea’s largest ginseng manufacturer has set out to market its products full-fledged, most recently by attending the region’s biggest duty-free and travel retail show.Korea Ginseng Corp. showcased its red ginseng-based products at the 2018

SINGAPORE -- While ginseng products have long been consumed by all age groups in South Korea, the spreading of information on their convenience and benefits has relied mostly on word of mouth.With a gradual rise in the popularity of ginseng products overseas, Korea’s largest ginseng manufacturer has set out to market its products full-fledged, most recently by attending the region’s biggest duty-free and travel retail show.Korea Ginseng Corp. showcased its red ginseng-based products at the 2018

Korea Ginseng Corp. will participate in this year’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Singapore for the second year in a row with aims to promote its ginseng-based health care products in the global market, the company said Tuesday. A Cheong Kwan Jang booth set up by Korea Ginseng Corp. (Korea Ginseng Corporation)The Tax Free World Association, or TFWA, is the largest association in international duty free and travel retail. It hosts the global conference twice a year, once in Singapore and

While German carmakers are facing investigation overseas over cheat devices, foreign carmakers operating in South Korea have been charged with different issues here: submitting falsified emissions test documents and selling vehicles without authorization.The first round of government hearings in Korea on BMW Korea and Porsche Korea’s emissions results took place last week.In an investigation by the Ministry of Environment and Korea Customs Service, BMW Korea was found to have falsified emissions

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the country’s top two auto makers, flagged a combined 631,225 units in global sales last month, up 10.4 percent on–year, the company said Thursday. This marks the first two digit growth rate since December 2014, boosted by recovery in external factors including improved diplomatic relations between Seoul and Beijing, coupled with all-out marketing efforts of the automaker‘s top brass led by Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun. Sales recovery was evident in China, where Hyun

Samsung BioLogics on Wednesday went full force to rebut the Financial Supervisory Service’s tentative decision that the biologics drugmaker had engaged in accounting fraud, which immediately led to a plunge in the firm’s stock price throughout the day. In an emergency press conference in Seoul in the afternoon, Samsung BioLogics contended that it had received approval from the FSS along with three major accounting firms on changing its accounting method to International Financial Reporting Stand