By Kim Hee-jong Director of Public Relations Division at Incheon Free Economic Zone Since Incheon was designated as the country’s first free economic zone in 2003, it has made huge leeway in transforming the city into a top free economic zone. To date foreign direct investment in the Incheon Free Economic Zone has reached $9.5 billion and 12 international institutions have offices in the city, including the Green Climate Fund, World Bank Korea and the Association of World Election Bodies. Recent

Korea’s top steelmaker Posco saw a 52.4 percent rise in its operating profit which reached 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in the third quarter, exceeding 1 trillion won for the first time in four years, the company said Wednesday. Net profit also surged by 115.6 percent to reach 475 billion won while total sales recorded 12.7 trillion won, down by 0.9 percent from the previous quarter. Along with the rise in sales of high value products and cost-saving efforts, the increase in the operating pro

While more and more Korean companies acknowledge the importance of “design management,” small and medium-sized enterprises face difficulties in seeking it, a survey showed Tuesday. In a Herald Corp survey of some 140 local companies, 72 percent of CEOs said they were aware of the concept of “design business.” The survey was conducted to determine the level of awareness about design management ahead of the sixth Herald Design Forum slated for Nov. 8. Aside from design business, 73 percent of CEOs

Hyundai Engineering and Construction has gradually expanded investment in research and development since 2011 in an effort to lead the global construction market, the company said Tuesday. Since April 2011, the company started to expand its original technology research center and labs. This led to a 175 percent surge of R&D costs to 27.7 billion won ($24.4 million) over the past five years. The third Bosphorus bridge that Hyundai E&C built in Turkey (Hyundai E&C)In December 2014, the company als

Lotte Corp. eliminated over 8,000 safety problems in the past year at the Lotte World Tower, which is slated to open in April, the company said Sunday. The company said a total of 8,266 safety cases were found in its independent probe from November last year, with 97 percent of them fixed. The problems included trivial maintenance issues to safety-related matters such as managing fire apparatus and protective equipment. “Checking only one floor takes a lot of time and effort as each floor is aro

Sales of large furniture sharply grew in the third quarter this year, indicating a new trend in lifestyle among young South Korean newlyweds and families. According to furniture giant Hanssem, sales of six-person dining tables rose threefold compared to 2014. Bed-maker Ace Bed has also seen the sharp growth in sales of king-size beds, with a 17.7 percent rise this year, up by 3.4 percentage points compared to 2014.  (Hanssem)As the use of furniture is becoming diversified and the demand for extr

The cost of restructuring ailing Korean shipbuilders and shipping companies is estimated at 31 trillion won ($27 billion), with the cost projected to be offset after a decade, the International Monetary Fund’s report said Sunday. The report was based on the assumption that the creditors’ losses caused by debt restructuring would reach 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent of GDP along with 0.4 to 0.9 percent of the labor force employment impact. The figure was only calculated for the companies whose times

Korea’s state-run power company signed the world’s largest deal for operating nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, the company said Thursday. Korea Electric Power Corp. CEO Cho Hwan-eik and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi agreed to jointly make investment for an operation company that will run four nuclear power plants in Barakah, 270 kilometers west of Abu Dahbi, UAE. With an injection of $900 million into the operation company, Korea is expected to draw

South Korea vowed to provide the United Arab Emirates strategic consulting to establish a patent screening agency there as part of a move to boost global ties in the intellectual property sector, the Korean office said. Korean Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Choi Dong-gyou and Mohammed al-Shihhi, the undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Economy, inked a memorandum of understanding on the strategic consulting at the high-ranking bilateral talks held at the 56th World Intellectual Prope

GS Group Chariman Huh Chang-soo on Wednesday urged the executive board members to embrace “ethical business practices” and to better prepare for new business opportunities. “Taking the anti-graft law enforcement as an opportunity, (we) should overhaul the level of precision management and step up ethical business,” Huh told the executive board members in the quarterly meeting. GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo (GS Group)Since late September, the Improper Solicitation and Graft law has banned publi

Bringing all things together regardless of industries will be the dominating philosophy of future design, said a renowned British industrial designer. “The philosophy of the future is ‘convergence,’ which is the title of my show next year at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Converging one with the other, from environmental issues, material resources, new additive technology, digital design, to core human values of why something should or could exist will dominate the design industry in the future,”

Concerns are growing over additional seizures of Hanjin Shipping vessels that could lead to costly delays in unloading operations after a local court greenlighted the arrest of a vessel despite the troubled firm’s bankruptcy protection. On Monday, Changwon District Court dismissed the near-bankrupt company’s objection to the court’s decision to allow the detainment and auction sale of vessel Hanjin Xiamen docked in Busan Newport. US company World Fuel Services recently requested the vessel arres

The Seoul court said Friday it has decided to sell the core business route of Hanjin Shipping as part of court receivership moves to secure cash. Seoul Central District Court, which is in charge of the court receivership of the near-bankrupt company, said it will put up a public notice of sale for Hanjin’s Asia-US shipping network and will receive letters of intent by Oct. 28. The prices have not been determined yet.  (Yonhap)The Asia-US route is one of the core assets of the company, drawing ar

SK Group CEOs vowed to change business structure and seek better work efficiency with various measures to boost growth, the company said Friday.  SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks during a CEO seminar. (SK Group)At a three-day CEO seminar held from Wednesday under the theme of “Changes and Challenges for Sustainable Happiness,” 40 executive board members and CEOs, including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, acknowledged the necessity to change the business structure. The specific approaches in

Korea’s oil refiner donated heating oil worth 1.5 billion won ($1.3 million) for 3,000 households in Ulsan hit by typhoon Chaba, the company said Thursday. Each household will receive a heating oil coupon worth 500,000 won, it said. Two regions in Ulsan were designated as a “special disaster area” on Monday after the typhoon caused over 9 billion won of damage.  S-Oil CEO Othman Al-Ghamdi (S-Oil)“As a member of the Ulsan community, which houses our refinery, S-Oil will make every effort to suppo

The state-run Industrial Bank of Korea has decided to issue a refund guarantee to Samsung Heavy Industries, supporting the company in its latest shipbuilding deal, industry sources said Thursday.Samsung Heavy Industries on Wednesday clinched a deal worth 240 billion won ($220 million) to build four oil tankers for Norwegian company Viken. This is the company’s second order obtained this year. A refund guarantee is a form of security for purchasers who generally pay for a substantial part of vess

Samsung Heavy Industries won a deal to build four oil tankers worth 240 billion won ($220 million), the company said Wednesday.The shipbuilder said it won a contract to build two 123,000-deadweight-ton oil tankers and two other 157,000-DWT oil tankers for Norwegian firm Viken.This is the firm’s second deal of the year, following the first contract two weeks ago involving an order to construct two 180,000-cubic-meter class liquefied natural gas carriers worth 420 billion won for Monaco’s GasLog.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering will speed up its job cut plan as part of its restructuring scheme, the company said Wednesday, amid growing concerns over the company’s fate.The ailing shipbuilder said it is pushing for a faster self-rescue plan to cut some 3,000 jobs, thereby, keeping its total staff number under 10,000 by the end of this year. As of June, about 127,000 workers are employed, according to DSME. The company initially sought to gradually cut the jobs by 2020 but the com

Korea’s No. 1 steelmaker Posco was picked as the top steelmaker in the world for its climate change efforts, the company said Thursday. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, the UK-based non-governmental organization which assesses the green policies and emissions level of companies, Posco topped the steelmaker’s ranking for its efforts into cutting the emissions, followed by Saab in Sweden and Thyssenkrupp in Germany. Korea’s Hyundai Steel stood at No. 4. This is the first time that the C

For all businesses, production starts with design and ends with design. Regardless of the type, design has become instrumental in developing a product’s identity. With technology evolving at an ever rapid pace, design has become more than just an expression of aesthetics and a tool of convenience. The convergence of design with technology has brought about new industries as it allows the businesses to break down the often fine lines that traditionally demarcate traditional industries. Creating t