The cost of electricity for residential use surged last month amid growing public calls for a change to the power bill system, data showed Tuesday. According to Korea Electric Power Corp. and Rep. Yoo Dong-soo of The opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, the total power rate for residential use for last month reached 947 billion won ($845 million). If the power rate of small shops --120 billion won -- is included, the electricity bill exceeds 1 trillion won, hitting a record high. Last month’s power

Korean Air, the largest shareholder of Hanjin Group, appears to be seeking alternative plans to save near-bankrupt Hanjin Shipping in the face of the board’s rejection of injecting $60 billion won ($53.7 million) in the ailing shipper.　During several rounds of emergency meetings held during the Chuseok holiday, Korean Air’s executive board failed to reach an agreement to find $60 billion won for the cash-strapped firm.“Since there are multiple stakeholders, holding the terminal collateral is nea

Local banks decided to issue a refund guarantee for Hyundai Heavy Industries, allowing the company to go ahead with ship-building projects, sources said Sunday. According to the financial sources, seven banks, including the firm’s main creditor KEB Hana Bank, made the decision to issue the refund guarantee for the company by early next month. A refund guarantee is a form of security for purchasers who normally pay for a substantial part of the vessels in advance of delivery. A ship-building cont

The most Korean superrich in terms of stock value were found to live in Yongsan-gu in central Seoul, data showed Sunday. According to corporate information provider Chaebul.com, 19 percent, or 48 of 243, of rich individuals owning over 100 billion won ($88 million) in stocks live in Hannam-dong and Itaewon -- both of which are in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Among them, 14 were found to possess over 1 trillion won in stocks. Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee's house in Yongsan, Seoul. (Yonhap)The Itaewon

Partly due to the Hanjin Shipping crisis, South Korea’s exports decreased this month, data showed Monday. According to the Korea Customs Service, the amount of exports fell by 3.6 percent to $13.5 billion from Sept.1-10 on-year. The monthly export amount rebounded in August with a 2.6 percent rise, after 19 months of decline. By types of exported items, telecommunication-related equipment, vehicles, and home electronics plummeted by 21.3 percent, 30.8 percent and 25.7 percent, respectively.By re

Government representatives from South Korea and the US have held a meeting in Seoul to seek ways to prevent cargo disruption in ports in North America over the deepening Hanjin crisis, officials said Friday. Korea’s Oceans and Fisheries Vice-Minister Yoon Hak-bae and US Department of Commerce’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia Diane Farrell shared measures against the Hanjin aftermath amid widespread concerns that the near-bankrupt company could impede cargoes heading to the US ahead of the u

Hyundai Heavy Industries received the second approval in principle from global certification institution Det Norske Veritas und Germanic Lloyd for its unique design concept SkyBench, the company said Friday. At SSM, the leading international maritime trade fair held in Hamburg, Germany on Thursday, the shipbuilder received the second approval from DNV GL for its innovative design SkyBench which allows for maximization of the loading capacity of containerships by utilizing void space under the sl

Hit by the Hanjin Shipping crisis, the damage of cargo transportation has escalated. According to the Korea International Trade Association, a total of 161 export damage cases have been reported as of late Wednesday. The number is five times higher than when the association started to receive damage reports on Sept. 1. The financial losses are estimated to have reached about $70 million so far, the agency said. By types of damage, ship arrest accounted for the most, with 58 cases, followed by do

Concerns grew Thursday that the Hanjin Shipping crisis may affect new ship orders from foreign shipowners, possibly dealing another blow to ailing Korean shipbuilders such as the world’s No.1 Hyundai Heavy Industries. Greek container shipowner Danaos has made a long-term contract with Hanjin Shipping to lend it eight container ships. Danaos has been one of the major clients for Korean companies. According to Clarksons, 48 out of Danaos’s 58 ships were built by Korean companies such as Samsung He

Cargo disruptions triggered by the cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping deepened worldwide Wednesday, with shippers holding both the parent company and the government responsible for failing to come up with preventative measures.Of 128 Hanjin Shipping carriers owned by the company, 85 or about 66 percent of the total are in abnormal status, according to the company’s latest data released late Tuesday. Abnormal status refers to ships standing by on the high seas or banned from loading and unloading at p

Near-bankrupt Hanjin Shipping looks set to get an injection of 100 billion won ($90.5 million) from its parent group, although the amount falls far short of covering its entire overdue balance that approaches 600 billion won. Hanjin Group said Tuesday that it would provide the funds to the country’s largest container carrier which is facing disruptions in its freight handling worldwide due to overdue debt.  Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Lee Jung-hyun (right) and other lawmakers attend the governme

HANOI, Vietnam -- Korea’s top steelmaker Posco is expanding its business in Vietnam in various fields, especially in steel-processing and new city projects. Since the steelmaker entered Vietnam in 1991, one year before Seoul and Hanoi established an official diplomatic channel, Posco has established 12 corporations and two offices in Vietnam, mostly in steel-making, steel-processing and construction.  The view of Splendora in An Khanh, Vietnam (Posco)The steelmaker has run its Vietnam Ha Noi Pro

Korea’s oil refiner S-Oil has appointed Othman Al-Ghamdi, the former Aramco Asia Korea’s representative director, as the new CEO, the company said Monday.The Saudi-born CEO will succeed Nasser Al-Mahasher who headed S-Oil for four and half years.  (S-Oil CEO Othman Al-Ghamdi)Building career as an engineer at Saudi Aramco from 1990, he worked for Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Company in China, the joint venture that Saudi Aramco established with Exxon Mobil and Sinopec, from 2004 to 2008. Al-

RAYONG, Thailand -- Korea’s biggest steelmaker Posco on Wednesday completed its first automotive steel plate plant in Thailand as part of moves to expand the steel business in the Southeast Asian market. The company built a continuous galvanizing line plant named Posco-Thailand Coated Steel with an annual capacity of 450,000 tons in Amata City Industrial Estate in Rayong province, 140 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. The steelmaker broke ground for the plant in the heart of Thailand’s automotive

Chemical and battery firm LG Chem said Sunday that it will focus on high value petrochemicals as part of its moves to boost its competitiveness and sales.With an aim to raise the sales of high value petrochemicals from the current 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) to 7 trillion won by 2020, the company will expand the polyolefine products with its exclusive technology. This will lead to better quality of polyester and polypropylene, it said. By 2018, the company will inject 400 billion won in to rai

Korea’s top steelmaker POSCO is putting efforts into enhancing its automotive steel plate business as one of the few global companies that supplies steel sheets for carmakers.Automotive steel plates, a cash cow steel product, are only supplied by some 20 out of about 800 steelmakers in the world. POSCO supplies 10 percent of the world total at 8.7 million tons.  POSCO’s self-developed automotive steel plate is displayed at North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. (POSCO)Earl

Korea’s top shipper Hanjin Shipping may face court receivership this week while the government and the finance sector are preparing for measures against the possible aftermath.On Thursday, Hanjin Group submitted a rescue plan that planned 400 billion won ($358 million) of funds from Korean Air and 100 billion won from other Hanjin’s affiliates and Hanjin Group Charman Cho Yang-ho’s private account. The creditors, including the main creditor Korea Development Bank, however, expressed disappointme

POSCO Engineering and Construction is putting efforts into tackling inter-floor noise in apartments through an innovative technology, the company said Thursday.Since April, the company has launched a study on improving constructability of baseplate made of high manganese steel that the steel giant POSCO developed for the first time in the world last year. POSCO E&C is the construction arm of POSCO, the world‘s fourth-largest steelmaker. POSCO E&C CEO Han Chan-gun (center) tests the strength of h

The WooJung Education and Culture Foundation under Booyoung Group offered scholarships worth a total of 400 million won ($357,000) to 100 foreign students studying in Korea, as part of its corporate social responsibility moves, the company said Thursday. The foundation, established by Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Joong-geun in 2008, has provided scholarships to foreign students twice a year since 2010.  Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Joong-geun (second from right), who also heads the WooJung Educati

Korea Electronic Power Corp. has suffered a deficit in its investment business while it has drawn massive business from the power rate hike and the increase in the demand for power, data showed Wednesday. According to the National Assembly and KEPCO, the state-run company’s sales rose by 11.4 percent to 483,655 gigawatt-hour last year over the past five years while the revenue soared by 44.3 percent to 54 trillion won ($48 billion).The power rate, in the meantime, increased by nearly 30 percent