Posco Chairman Kwon Oh-joon on Monday vowed to bring the company to greater heights over the next 50 years, at a New Year’s meeting at the company’s headquarters in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Kwon ordered the company to expand its earning power by upgrading its steelmaking business and continue restructuring its business to maximize work efficiency. “This year should be the year to secure the top steel earning power in the world and wrap up the scheduled restructuring while establishing

Korean firm Hanwha Engineering and Construction received about $560 million in construction fees last week from the Iraqi government for its ongoing new city project, the company said Monday. "A Town” in the new city of Bismayah, Iraq (Hanwha Engineering and Construction)The company has been building a 1,830-hectare new city called “A Town” in Bismayah, 10 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. This is the largest single project a Korean constructor has won overseas. The firm bagged the new town const

Korea’s top oil refiner SK Innovation will inject up to 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) into its petrochemical, petroleum development and battery business to expand the business growth, the company said Sunday. “Although the business conditions of the new year are expected to be tough, (the company) needs to overcome it through unremitting systematic innovation. Let us cultivate a new growth drive through our confident and aggressive investment,” said SK Innovation CEO and President Kim Jun. He st

Korean oil refiner S-Oil has donated 2 billion won ($1.6 million) to the underprivileged as part of its regular efforts to support those in need, the company said Thursday. S-Oil CEO Othman Al-Ghamdi (left) poses for a photo with Community Chest of Korea Chairman Hur Dong-soo at a donation ceremony in Seoul, Thursday. (S-Oil)“I hope that S-Oil’s donation serves as some help to those in need in every corner of our society, including senior citizens living alone, single-parent families, the disabl

Daelim Industrial has bagged a 2.3 trillion won ($1.9 billion) construction deal with Iran, marking the largest construction contract that a Korean company has won since economic sanctions on the Middle Eastern country were lifted, the company said Thursday. The company said it received a letter of award from Iran’s Isfahan Oil Refinery to improve and expand oil refining facilities in Isfahan, 400 kilometers south of Tehran. The deal’s value makes up about 24 percent of the company’s sales last

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said Wednesday it will initiate one month of unpaid leave for all office workers starting from next year as part of its cost-saving efforts. The shipbuilder said about 300 office workers will first start their one month of unpaid leave next month. All three Korean shipbuilders -- DSME, Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries -- vowed to enforce such unpaid leave as part of their self-rescue plans, but this is the first time that a company

Korea’s top steelmaker Posco has been making aggressive investment moves to take the lead in the global automotive steel market, shipping 8.7 million tons of automotive steel to global carmakers last year, which made up 10 percent of the world’s total production of such steel. Only 20 of some 800 steelmakers around the world are able to produce automotive steel as it requires high technical skills.  Posco’s continuous galvanizing line plant in Thailand (Posco)In January, the steelmaker showcased

Daewoo Engineering and Construction said Tuesday it has received about 387.1 billion won ($323 million) of construction fees in the past two months from Morocco’s Safi Energy Company for building a coal power plant. The Korean company kicked off construction of the Safi Independent Power Project this year, but there have been some concerns over the construction fees, as the payment was delayed. The company said the payment is nearly completed, with the remaining small amount due early next year.

Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction has bagged a deal worth 2.8 trillion won ($2.3 billion) to build two coal-fired plants in India, the company said Monday. Korea’s top equipment maker said its overseas corporation Doosan Power Systems India received the notice of award from the Uttar Pradesh provincial government to build the Obra-C coal power plant and Jawaharpur coal power plant in northern India. With each comprised of two 660-megawatt plants, the total production capacity of the power

The upcoming reorganization of global shipping alliances is likely to hit Korea’s largest port in Busan, a report showed Friday. According to the Korea Maritime Institute’s report, the harbor volume of Busan Port is expected to drop by 3.5 percent from next year. Busan Port managed containers of more than 10 million twenty-foot equivalent units last year. Of those, the Asia-North America route accounted for 36.7 percent while the Asia-Europe shipping line made up 6.7 percent. The Institute forec

Stock prices of the Korean shipping and shipbuilding industries for next year are projected to be mixed amid the market’s tough conditions and ongoing restructuring, experts said Thursday. Analysts said the financial resolutions of ailing shipping companies would lead to recovery of the stock prices of the shipping industry, but shipbuilders will see a rough year due to rising competition from China and Japan and the nature of their orders, which require extensive time to materialize.Since Hanji

The heads of three Korean shipbuilders have been selected as some of the most influential figures in the shipping industry, a UK journal reported Tuesday. According to Lloyd’s List of the “100 most influential people in the shipping industry,” Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering CEO Jung Sung-leep came in at No. 76 for showing a “willingness to roll up his sleeves and deal with the troubled shipbuilder’s issues head on.” Jung personally visited Angola and the United Arab Emirates to negot

The accumulative sales credit of nine major construction firms in Korea exceeded 25 trillion won ($21 billion) this year, posing potential credit risk to the companies, the financial industry said Tuesday. (Yonhap)According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the total accumulative sales credit of the nine large construction firms recorded 26.7 trillion won as of the third quarter. Hyundai Engineering and Construction topped the nine companies with 6.1 trillion won, followed by GS Engineering

Newly established shipping routes from Pyeongtaek Port are giving it a competitive edge as the gateway for Korea’s exports to Southeast Asia for local industries, the head of state-run Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Port Corporation said.  Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Port Corporation CEO Choi Gwang-il (GPPC)“This year, (the company) has put efforts into expanding the cargo volume and seeking new businesses. It will now focus on turning the port into a vehicle-specialized port to become an automobile cluster, and o

Korean industries showed mixed reactions to the rising global crude oil price over the weekend, with the ailing shipbuilders expressing relief, while aviation and shipping businesses remained cautious.According to the Korea National Oil Corporation’s oil information provider Opinet, the average of the Korean gasoline price hit its yearly high, going to 1,460 won ($1.23) per liter, Saturday. The diesel price also surged to a yearly high of 1,253 won per liter. The oil information provider specula

Hyundai Heavy Industries’ stock price started off weak Thursday, a day after it announced its marine plant project worth 2.1 trillion won ($1.78 billion) was canceled, having been pending for more than three years.The stock price opened at 150,500 won on the Seoul bourse on Thursday, down 1.95 percent from the previous session, and continued to drop in the afternoon. The shipbuilder said Chevron North Sea had notified that it would withdraw the order to build a floating production storage offloa

The US interest rate hike will likely pose more burden on Korea’s export-based economy as it will affect the emerging markets which Korea heavily depends on, a report said Thursday.According to a report by the Korea International Trade Association, the strengthening dollar may lower material costs and cause capital outflow, triggering an impact on emerging markets such as China, Central and South America, which could affect the Korean economy. From January to October this year, emerging countrie

Korea’s oil refiner S-Oil gave awards to dozens of citizens and bereaved families for risking or sacrificing their lives to save others, the company said Thursday.S-Oil presented a total of 140 million won ($118,600) to 34 citizen heroes at its annual Hero Neighbors Award event held at its headquarters in Seoul.  S-Oil CEO Othman al-Ghamdi poses for a photo with award recipients at the S-Oil headquarters, Seoul, Thursday. (S-Oil)The recipients included 29-year-old job seeker Ahn Chi-beom, who pa

Hanjin Shipping, once the world’s seventh-largest shipping company, is on the verge of collapse and fading into history, despite its strenuous efforts to revive itself while under court receivership. According to the Seoul Central District Court in charge of the court receivership, accounting firm Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers has concluded that liquidation of the cash-strapped shipper is “more economical” rather than continuing with rehabilitation. The accounting firm estimated the liquidation v

Creditors will inject capital of nearly 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) into Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering by this month to rescue the cash-strapped company from delisting risk, industry insiders said Tuesday. Last month, the creditors, including the Korea Development Bank, decided to provide financial aid in the form of a debt-for-equity swap to the company. On Monday, the embattled shipbuilder’s board decided to sell stocks to the KDB to have its 1.8 trillion won debt swapped with s