An annual design festival led by Herald Corp. kicked off Friday with an aim to better support and introduce innovative products by local leading designers, the company said.Visitors purchase items at the Hi Design Festival’s design market, which opened in Seoul on Friday. (Yoon Byung-chan/The Korea Herald)Calling itself “a design culture festival enjoyed by all in one fine summer day,” the 3rd Hi, Design Festival offers programs including product markets, hands-on experiences and one-day classes

POSCO Daewoo, a subsidiary of steelmaker POSCO, decided to withdraw from a Korean consortium that took part in a Nickel plant project in Madagascar, due mainly to a continuous deficit issue prompted by the plummeting Nickel price, the company said Friday. Since 2006, POSCO Daewoo has injected 150 billion won ($134 million) into a Nickel mine project in Ambatovy, Madagascar, after forming the Korea Ambatovy Consortium with STX and Korea Resources Corp. POSCO Daewoo’s withdrawal from the Ambatovy

State-run Korea Electric Power Corp. is currently under a tax investigation as part of the government’s regular probe, sources said Thursday. This is the first time in eight years that the agency is being probed by the National Tax Service.  (Yonhap)The Seoul tax office regularly conducts tax probes into medium and large-size corporations worth over 50 billion won ($44 million). The authorities are investigating possible tax evasion when the firm placed construction orders. The probe, launched e

Hyundai Heavy Industries made a “surprise” operating profit in the second quarter of the year, but two other rival shipbuilders are projected to post losses, analysts said Thursday. Samsung Heavy Industries, which is scheduled to release its Q2 earnings  Friday, is expected to post an operating loss, due mainly to the delay of two major projects.The company’s project to build Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facilities for multinational firm Shell has been delayed to April next year. The p

Korea’s major construction firms have seen a rise in their operating profits of the second quarter, thanks to the jump of orders and expansion to the overseas market, industry analysts said. Hyundai Engineering and Construction said on Wednesday that its operating profit rose by 5.5 percent to 268 billion won ($236 million) in the second quarter on-year.The sales dropped by 2.7 percent to 4.69 trillion won but the net profit jumped by 16.4 percent to 167.7 billion won. In the first half of this

Korean builder Daewoo Engineering & Construction is boosting its efforts in the energy field, with various projects in both fossil fuel and renewable fields. Last year, the company mapped out a long-term plan to become a “global infrastructure and energy developer“ by 2025 with an aim to offer a comprehensive solution from planning and construction to power plant operation.Since 2013, the company has focused on projects concerning an independent power producer that helps generate electric power

Aggressive investment in non-refining businesses have helped Korean oil refineries secure and boost operating profits in the first half of this year, with major companies showing record high performances, market analysts said Tuesday.In the first half of this year, SK Innovation’s operating profit hit a record high of 1.96 trillion won ($1.17 billion). This is the first time that operating profit for a local oil refinery has reached nearly 2 trillion won in half a year. While the lagging effect

Johannes Thammer, the head of AudiVolkswagen Korea, responds to questions from the Korean media after participating in the hearing over the emissions scandal at National Institute of Environmental Research in Incheon, Monday. Starting from Monday, the company said it would voluntarily suspend the sales of problematic vehicles which will face administrative measures from the Environment Ministry soon. (Yonhap)

Korea has reached a landmark deal with the United Arab Emirates to operate four nuclear reactors currently under construction in the Middle East country, officials said Monday. The state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said it made an operation support services agreement with the UAE Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. over operating the four Advanced Power Reactor-1400 nuclear reactors at Barakah.  KHNP president Cho Seok (right) and UAE ENEC CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi exchange gifts after reaching a nuc

The Seoul government has set up a basic scheme to safely manage spent nuclear fuel, amid public calls for clear safety measures for the used nuclear fuel, officials said Monday. The government’s nuclear power committee, chaired by Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, said it has drawn up the country’s first scheme for the safe management of high-level radioactive waste. Under the new basic scheme, the government will determine the site for a permanent disposal facility based on scientific and democrati

South Korea’s top five conglomerates have grown even bigger in terms of assets they hold and revenue they produce in the past three years, but their contribution to creating new jobs is lagging, a report showed Sunday.According to conglomerate tracking research firm Chaebul.com, the combined assets of the top five largest companies -- Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte -- recorded about 930 trillion won ($817 billion) last year, a 15.5 percent rise from 2012. This accounted for 60 percent

The Korean construction and shipbuilding industries have seen the worst record of overseas orders in the first half of this year amid the sluggish economy and the aftermath of Brexit. According to the International Contractors Association of Korea, the total value of overseas orders of local major construction companies reached 12.6 trillion won ($11 billion), dropping by 38.7 percent on-year. This is one fifth of their initial goal of making 62 trillion for this year. Samsung C&T recorded the h

The nation’s top steelmaker POSCO recorded 12.8 trillion won ($11.2 billion) in total sales and 670 billion won in operating profit in the second quarter of this year, the company said Thursday. This is respectively a 3.2 percent rise and a 2.8 percent increase compared to the previous quarter. The improved performance of the steel, information and communication technology, and material businesses contributed to the rise, despite the slight decrease in sales and operating profits of POSCO E&C an

The performance of Korean oil refineries is expected to continue a gradual rebound, with improving refining margins, industry sources said Wednesday. The benchmark Singapore complex gross refining margin, which peaked at $9.9 per barrel in January, plummeted to $4.9 per barrel last month. The index, however, started to rebound to $5.4 per barrel in the first week of July. (Yonhap)The index indicates the difference between the total value of petroleum products coming out of an oil refinery and th

Electric car chargers will likely be available at telephone poles across the country soon, a state-run power company said Wednesday. Korea Electric Power Corp. said it is currently developing electric car chargers that can be installed at telephone poles. Once developed, about 30,000 telephone poles near parking lots will be equipped with the chargers. There are about 9 million telephone poles across the country.  (KEPCO)The idea for the “telephone pole charger” was brought up by a KEPCO employe

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering faced three additional compensation lawsuits from institutional investors over the massive accounting fraud, following the first one earlier this month, sources said Tuesday. Government Employees Pension Service and Teachers’ Pension filed the lawsuit against the ailing company for compensation of some 22 billion won ($19 million). Korea Post also separately sought 400 million won in compensation. This has led to over 70 billion won in compensation laws

The unions of Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy Industries on Tuesday launched a partial strike against the rupture of the wage negotiation. Two shift teams of the carmaker union staged the strike for two hours each while the heavy industries union did for three hours. This is the first collective strike of the two unions in 23 years when the federation of Hyundai Group’s unions launched it in 1993. The two unions hold a press conference before staging a collective strike in Ulsan, Tuesday. (Yonha

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering said Monday it will kick off building oil plant modules that is worth $2.7 billion, the largest plant project in the company’s history. The shipbuilding firm said the shareholders of Tengizchevroil LLP -- Chevron Overseas Co., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures, LUKARCO B.V. and KazMunayGas NC -- had made the final investment decision on expanding the Tengiz oilfield in western Kazakhstan. The expansion project is worth $38.8 billion, the shipbuilder said. Yo

CINCINNATI -- Multinational consumer goods company Procter & Gamble said its fabric refresher Febreze is scientifically safe for use, amid growing public concern in Korea over its possible toxicity.P&G headquarters said that the ingredients of Febreze are strictly controlled and within the safety range so it is not toxic when inhaled.The P&G Ivorydale Technical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. (P&G)“All ingredients used in Febreze products have been thoroughly assessed to be safe for consumers u

Techno valleys in Korea are playing a pivotal role as hubs for technology start-ups as the government pushes to boost innovation through policy measures. Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which opened in 2011, is one of the leading techno valleys in Korea. It started small with only 82 companies in the 661,000 square meter area and first-year sales reaching just 5 trillion won, ($4.3 billion).Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province (Yonhap)Pangyo Techno Valley, how