Despite a third-quarter net loss, some stock market analysts still think Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, one of Korea’s leading power plant builders, will be able to achieve its annual order target of 10 trillion won ($9.4 billion) by the end of the year. The company, the flagship of Doosan Group, posted a net loss of 15.8 billion won in the third quarter, a plunge from a net profit of 58.8 billion won in the same period a year ago. Losses from equity ties with its money-losing affiliate

The Incheon Free Economic Zone, the nation’s first free economic zone, was launched in 2003 to strengthen national competitiveness by creating new growth engines. The IFEZ is now taking shape as a foreign business-friendly city based on decade-long investments. I’ve often heard that the first stage development of the zone was like creating something from nothing. The IFEZ, composed of three districts ― Incheon, Songdo, Youngjong and Cheongna ― is now recognized as a leading global city in and ou

A growing number of global retail brands, including fashion brands as well as food and beverage chains, are seeing Seoul’s major commercial and retail streets as an opportunity to test out Asian waters.“Commercial and retail streets, better known as high streets in the U.K., have emerged as a key sales and marketing channel for foreign retail brands in Korea since the mid 2000s, when more young Korean consumers started looking for brands to express their own fashion and style beyond brands in de

The three-day CEO Conference of the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and the West Pacific, or AESIEAP, was launched on Monday at Coex InterContinental Hotel in southern Seoul, said the Korea Electric Power Corp., the organizer of the event. KEPCO CEO Cho Hwan-eik made an opening speech as the AESIEAP president. Cho will serve as the association chief for the next two years. Under the theme of the role and responsibilities of the electric power industries to make a smar

Korea’s strong trade and industrial competitiveness stayed intact last year, while there was a wide gap between Korea and developed nations in the labor and social sectors, according to a statistics book released by the Korea International Trade Association on Sunday. According to “Korea Mirrored in Statistics,” based on a variety of international data and publications, Korea was the world’s 12th largest economy based on gross domestic production and 8th largest global trade powerhouse last year

Louis Vuitton is the most counterfeited foreign luxury brand in Korea, according to data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. There were 616 cases involving fake Louis Vuitton items worth 487.5 billion won from 2009 to September 2013 during a customs crackdown, KCS said in its report submitted to Rep. Jung Sung-ho of the main opposition Democratic Party.The French luxury brand, which is owned by luxury goods giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, has long been one of the most popular luxur

Hyosung Corp., a leading textile manufacturer in Korea, will speed up its market expansion into the fast-growing Chinese spandex market as part of its efforts to bolster its global market leadership, the company said Wednesday. “The Chinese spandex market, which makes up 57 percent of total global demand, has annually grown more than 6 percent. Hyosung continue to expand business activities to lead the fast-growing Chinese spandex market and so to reinforce its global market leadership,” Cho Hyu

LS Group, the nation’s 16th-largest conglomerate by assets, is struggling to contain the fallout from its units’ involvement in nuclear power plant-related corruption scandals. On Monday, LS Group placed an ad on the front page of the nation’s major dailies under the name of group chairman Koo Ja-yeol, saying that the group would take full responsibility for wrongdoing and inconvenience caused by its affiliate firms and make painstaking efforts to be reborn as a trusted business group. Prior to

OCI, a Korean green energy solution provider, launched the construction of a cogeneration power plant at the Saemangeum industrial complex in North Jeolla Province on Monday, company officials said.Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok, North Jeolla Province Governor Kim Wan-joo and other prominent figures attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The 1 trillion won ($942 million) project to build a coal-powered combined heat and power plant is the first investment that the Saemang

Global energy leaders and experts urged countries to create an energy mix in their pursuit of environmentally sustainable economic growth in the Daegu Declaration signed at the end of the five-day 22nd World Energy Congress on Thursday.They also stressed the need for international efforts to ensure good governance and safety and to incorporate innovative energy technologies, including smart grids and energy storage systems.The 2013 WEC was held in Daegu under the theme of “Securing Tomorrow’s En

Daesung Group chairman Younghoon David Kim, 61, made an international debut as leader of the World Energy Council, the world’s largest independent network of global energy leaders and practitioners.Kim was chosen as a co-chair of the WEC last December and took office on the last day of the World Energy Congress in Daegu that closed Thursday.It is the first time for a Korean to take the top post of a global energy body. The London-based WEC, formed in 1923, is one of the most influential independ

North Korea, which geopolitically borders with energy heavyweights like China and Russia, was highlighted as a key obstacle for transnational energy projects in Northeast Asia during the 2013 World Energy Congress in Daegu.In a WEC session Tuesday on energy cooperation in Asia, energy industry leaders proposed an innovative “super-grid” project to build a power grid network in Northeast Asia. The grid would allow connected countries to transmit power to one another to ease pressure on those faci

DAEGU ― Korea’s sustainability in the energy sector worsened this year from the previous one, affected by rising energy imports and falling energy affordability, according to the 2013 energy sustainability index, issued by the World Energy Council on Tuesday in its triennial World Energy Congress in Daegu. The 2013 Energy Sustainability Index, made by the council in partnership with Oliver Wyman, a global management consultancy, evaluated 129 countries in three areas of energy sustainability las

DAEGU ― Despite continued growth of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, fossil fuels like oil and gas are expected to remain the dominant global energy sources even in the future, according to a report by the World Energy Council.The WEC released the report Monday, the first day of the five-day World Energy Congress that kicked off in this Korea’s third-largest city on Sunday.There has been some speculation in the world’s energy industry that the demand for fossil fuels wil

DAEGU ― A top leader in the nation’s leading refinery GS Caltex stressed that managing power demand was a way to cope with energy issues and achieving a “sustainable” energy future. “Managing energy demand is the key to achieving contradictory goals ― securing a stable energy supply and the response to climate change,” said Hur Dong-soo, chairman of GS Caltrex, in the first opening session of the 22nd World Energy Congress in Daegu aimed at discussing solutions for a sustainable energy future. H

The eyes of the global energy sector will be focused on the 22nd World Energy Congress in Daegu this week, where about 6,000 delegates will discuss energy issues related to sources ranging from oil and gas to nuclear and renewables.The triennial global gathering, held under the theme “Securing Tomorrow’s Energy Today,” is to gather some of the world’s most prominent energy ministers, industry CEOs, and researchers. Whereas the principal concern was once the price of oil, seen as the responsibili

The World Energy Congress, the world’s biggest international event in the energy sector, will offer a unique opportunity for all stakeholder groups in the energy sector to meet and exchange visions, strategies and practices, during four days of intensive sessions, roundtables and exhibitions that begin today. More than 6,000 international energy leaders and decision-makers are scheduled to gather at the congress. They come from the public and private corporate sectors, government and academia, a

The 2013 WEC in Daegu will run 63 sessions covering energy issues under a daily theme for the next four days from today. This year marks an appropriate time to assess thoroughly the global energy situation. The congress will be the first major multi-energy gathering since the launch of the Sustainable Energy For All initiative by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last year. A keynote speech from Khalid A. Al-Falih, CEO of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, will open the first

Natural resource-deficient Korea has long been dependent on the government-led, supply-driven, cheap electricity policy as stability in power supply has been seen as a crucial pre-condition of economic development. “The energy policy worked well when the Korean economy was in a developing stage, but it started facing a limit from the 1990s when the economy became much bigger,” Korea Energy Economics Institute president Sonn Yang-hoon said.  The supply-driven energy policy pushed Korea to the top

The state-run Korea Gas Corp., better known as KOGAS, has contributed to the nation’s economic growth and the quality of life of Koreans by importing liquefied natural gas and supplying it to power generation plants, gas-utility companies and city gas companies nationwide since its foundation in 1983. The company has now grown to become the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, running a nationwide pipeline network spanning over 3,562km reaching end users and power stations around the cou