Korea’s top automaker, Hyundai Motor is enjoying a sharp rise in sales of midsize autos in China, which could lead to a rise in its profitability, industry sources said Sunday.According to the sources, Hyundai Motor sold a total of 135,386 midsize sedans such as the YF Sonata in China last year, up 15.4 percent from a year earlier. The YF Sonata, which was introduced in China in 2011, led the overall growth last year with a total of 104,670 units sold in the world’s biggest auto market. In parti

The Korea Exchange (KRX), the country’s stock market operator, said Wednesday that it aims to run the country’s first carbon trading market starting in 2015 with some 500 firms expected to join.The KRX, designated as the sole operator of the carbon trading market, will adopt systems for emissions trading that are similar to the current stock market trading schemes. The regular trading hours will run from 10 a.m. to noon, the bourse operator said.The country has been joining efforts to reduce gre

The weakness of the Japanese yen led to a decrease in the number of Japanese tourists visiting South Korea in the first 11 months of last year, data showed Wednesday.In the January-November period of 2013, 2.53 million Japanese tourists came to South Korea, down 23.1 percent from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea. In June alone, the number of Japanese tourists to South Korea totaled 201,000, down 33.5 percent from the same period a year ago. The sharp fall, especially between April and J

Local builders are coming under increasing pressure as they undergo investigation for suspected bid-rigging amid difficult market conditions, industry sources said Wednesday.Insiders said the Fair Trade Commission is examining all large-scale public construction projects undertaken during the previous Lee Myung-bak administration. The FTC has not confirmed the investigations, but industry sources said at least seven or eight builders are being probed over work related to railway lines in Busan a

South Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom said Wednesday it has agreed with a Chinese counterpart to share its know-how on the Long Term Evolution network.SK Telecom said it will support China Telecom Corp. in establishing the network in areas covering Shanghai by sharing its technologies and experiences related to the LTE service.The company will also send its telecommunications experts to China under the deal.China approved the adaptation of the LTE network into the country in December, wi

The nation’s jobless rate rose in December from a month earlier, but job creation remained strong, raising hopes that labor market conditions might be improving, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3 percent last month, up from 2.7 percent in November. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also inched up from 2.9 percent to 3 percent.Job creation still remained strong. The number of employed people was 24.96 million in Decemb

ULSAN ― About 5,500 employees working in the Kori Nuclear Power Complex, stretching along the southern coastline in Ulsan and Busan, experienced a historic moment in their careers at 5 p.m. on Jan. 11 when the Shin-Kori reactor 2 was resumed following a seven-month hiatus. “Now that Shin-Kori reactor 2 has restarted, I feel like I have finally come out of a long tunnel,” said Woo Jung-bon, head of the Kori Nuclear Power Complex, run by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, in a celebratory event. KHNP is

The nation’s ambitious vision to build a Northeast Asian oil hub here hit another milestone on Monday as three local and international partners launched a joint venture firm to build and operate the nation’s second oil storage terminal in the North Port of Ulsan where Korea’s leading oil refinery complexes are located. Korea National Oil Corp., Netherland-based Royal Vopak and S-Oil, the nation’s third-largest refinery, have agreed to set up a joint venture called the “Korea Oil Terminal” to pus

Korea Resources Corp., the state-run mineral resources explorer and developer, has recently refinanced its debt-ridden Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project in Mexico in a debt-for-equity swap, the company said in a press release Monday.“The KORES-led Korean consortium agreed to the $938 million deal. The agreement will contribute not only to normalizing the project and but also to halving the firm’s debt ratio to 197 percent,” KORES chief executive Koh Jung-sik said. The consortium, which holds a 90

President Park Geun-hye meets CEOs of foreign-invested firms at Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday. (Yonhap News)Korea will offer strong incentives to potential foreign investors in a bid to attract more foreign direct investment. The move came as part of government efforts to dig up new sources of revenue amid stagnant economic conditions.“In an effort to create more value from FDI, the priority for our policies will be to offer stronger incentives for multinational companies seeking to relocate their h

Up to 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) is about to go down the drain for SK, and the company is not going to stand for it. SK Incheon Petrochem, which was spun off from SK Energy last May, is considering taking legal action against the Seo-gu Office of Incheon City to rescue its faltering 1.6 trillion won investment project, SK Innovation, said the holding company of SK Group’s energy businesses. “The company will take all types of measures, including legal action, to put the investment project b

Land, housing, infrastructure and transport-related public enterprises, including the Land and Housing Corp., Korea Railroad Corp. and K-water, were urged to launch aggressive reform plan to improve their financial health and management efficiency, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Monday. The request was made during a meeting on normalizing operations of 14 public firms under the ministry. The meeting, presided over by Minister Seo Seoung-hwan at the Sejong government comp

Despite sharp falls in the first week of the year, the country’s stock market may gain ground this week on the back of optimism for a global recovery, stock market analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, finished at 1,946.14 last week, down 2.1 percent from a week earlier. The KOSPI declined for the second straight session on last Friday as the local currency’s rise against the dollar and the yen raised fears of a negative impact on exporters. Foreign investors u

Hope for the revitalization of the nation’s real estate market, which has been in a slump since 2008, is greater than ever as the government lifted a heavy capital gains tax on multiple home owners on Jan. 1. Market experts, however, are divided on what effect the deregulatory measure will have on transactions. “The real estate market tends to swing psychological factors and so, I think that the abolition of the strongest tax-related regulation in the property market, following a tax reduction o

Samsung Group, the nation’s top conglomerate, is expected to make aggressive investments in its mainstay businesses this year, industry sources said on Sunday, adding its increased investments will be put on new growth engines. The group’s investments are poised to top 50 trillion won ($47.4 billion) this year, up from 49 trillion won last year.Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of the group, and Samsung Everland, the group’s de facto holding company, will each spend 84.7 billion won to b

More local manufacturers are pessimistic about their business conditions in January-March than the past quarter, due to the planned U.S. monetary stimulus cuts and local currency‘s volatility, a poll showed Sunday.The survey of 426 companies by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade showed the Business Survey Index at 93 for the first quarter of the year, down 8 points from 101 for the October-December period of last year.The index g

A jolting tumble in South Korean stocks in the first two trading days of the year has wiped out nearly 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion) in the value of stocks owned by chiefs of top 10 business groups, according to the data compiled by Chaebul.com, a chaebol research firm.The combined value of stocks held by the top 10 chiefs, including Lee Kun-hee of Samsung Group, reached 26.29 trillion won at the market closing on Jan. 3, down 4.2 percent from 27.44 trillion won on Dec. 30, the last session of 2

About 90 of fines levied on conglomerates by the financial regulator were later canceled by the courts last year despite initial rulings that sided with the regulator, data compiled by the Fair Trade Commission showed Sunday.The FTC’s records showed it has won 14 of the 21 lower court cases on corporate fines last year, a success rate in the upper 60 percent. The results are better, at over 80 percent, when smaller companies and individuals are also considered.“The FTC fines amounted to 4 trilli

Unionized workers at Homeplus, the nation’s second-largest chain store owned by the U.K.’s Tesco, on Wednesday threatened to stage a strike from Jan. 9, calling for management to scrap the current half-hourly wage system.Having already held partial strikes, the unionists called for an hourly basis payroll, which was adopted by other chain stores including E-Mart and Lotte Mart. “The so-called half hourly payroll system is unheard of in the industry. Homeplus has been taking advantage of the syst

SK Group and GS Group, both of which are engaged in the refinery and petrochemical businesses, appeared to have received a leg up to push ahead with a stalled foreign-invested petrochemical facility expansion project worth 1 trillion won ($0.96 billion) each after a revised foreign investment promotion law passed the National Assembly on Wednesday.“We welcome the long-awaited deregulation measure. We will make all-out efforts to make a contribution to the revitalization of the economy by proceed