Hyundai Oilbank, the nation’s fourth-largest oil refiner, started operations of its second BTX plant, in Daesan, a coastal city 137 kilometers southwest of Seoul, on Wednesday, the company said. BTX is a composite mix of benzene, toluene and xylene.The company completed the plant construction with its Japanese partner Cosmo Oil. Back in 2008, the two companies created a strategic alliance to cooperate in various areas, including the BTX business. The two companies completed the first BTX product

The state-funded Korea Testing & Research Institute, or KTR, is stepping up globalization efforts based on its 40 years of experience in Korea by entering overseas markets and seeking outbound merger and acquisition deals. KTR offers testing, product certification and technology consulting services to the entire industrial field.KTR has recently announced that it will set up a joint testing laboratory with Chemical Inspection and Regulation Services, a chemical registration consultancy in China,

Hyundai Oilbank, the nation’s fourth-largest oil refinery, was the best performer among its competitors in the first quarter of this year, data from the Financial Supervisory Service said Tuesday. According to the data, operating profit of Hyundai Oilbank, an affiliate of Hyundai Heavy Industries, fell 43.3 percent to 307 billion won ($269 million) from the same period a year ago. At a glance, the company seems to be seeing an earnings shock, but three other top oil refineries ― SK Innovation, G

Former Information and Communication Minister Bae Soon-hoon, 69, has been appointed the new chairman of S&T Dynamics, the company said Monday. S&T Dynamics, founded in 1959, is a local manufacturer of automotive parts, defense products and machine tools. Bae, who also served Daewoo Electronics as chairman in the mid-1990s, will oversee the new product and technology department tasked with leading the future growth of the company. (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)

The Korea-Turkey Free Trade Agreement will enter into force officially on May 1, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Monday. “Once the FTA takes effect in May, Korea and Turkey will eliminate tariffs on all industrial goods within seven years,” a ministry official said. The trade deal was officially signed on Aug. 1, 2012, but its implementation had been delayed until its approval by Turkey’s parliament. South Korea’s National Assembly ratified the bilateral FTA late last yea

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy smartphone line was ranked first in a survey of Korea’s top 100 brands in the first quarter, a local brand equity evaluator said Sunday. According to the survey by Brand Stock, the nation’s most popular smartphone brand retained the top spot for the second consecutive year with the highest score of 938. E-mart, the nation’s largest discount franchise, came in second. Olleh, the flagship brand of KT, was named the third-most popular brand in Korea. KB Kookmin Bank and

Korea’s exports to Japan have tumbled since the second half of last year, according to data released Sunday, mainly because of a weak yen. Korean exports to the world’s third-largest economy plunged 17.4 percent to $2.89 billion in February from a year ago, the Korea International Trade Association said. Korean exports to Japan fell below the $3 billion mark again after nose-diving 23 percent to $2.75 billion last April compared to the same period in 2012. Sales of Korean goods to Japan saw a te

Energy is emerging as an increasingly hot topic worldwide as the global energy landscape is fast changing on both the supply and demand sides, particularly since Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Many countries are bringing changes to their energy mixes to minimize the impact of those changes on their environment, economy and society. “All sources of energy ranging from oil and gas to renewables to nuclear power are facing a transition for their own reasons. Given this, it is the right

Korea’s Trade Minister Yoon Sang-jick held talks with his Indonesian counterpart Gita Irawan Wirjawan on issues of mutual concern in Seoul on Thursday, according to ministry officials.They were the first minister-level talks with a foreign country since the Park Geun-hye administration was inaugurated last month. The choice of Indonesia as the first country reflects the government’s view to seek further expansion of industrial and energy partnership with rising economies, according to experts.Re

COEX, an exhibition and convention center in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, appointed Byun Bo-kyung, former head of Seoul Business Agency, as new CEO, the Korea International Trade Association, the owner of COEX, said Thursday. Byun, 60, has built global leadership in the information technology sector, serving LG-IBM PC and Kolon Information and Technology as CEO. He entered the exhibition and convention industry in 2011 as CEO of the Seoul Business Agency, which carries out exhibitions and conv

The state-run Korea National Oil Corp. has discovered a “significant amount” of oil in Hawler oil field, northern Iraq, where it has a 15 percent stake, the company said Wednesday. Switzerland’s Oryx Petroleum has a 65 percent stake in the block, while the Kurdish local government holds the remaining 20 percent. The KNOC did not disclose an estimate for the oil reserves in the block, saying a more comprehensive study was required for such figures.But it added that a drill stem test had yielded a

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the nation’s top shipbuilder, won a $2 billion deal to build two offshore facilities for France-based oil company Total, the company said in a press release. In the deal with Total’s overseas branch in the Republic of Congo, Hyundai Heavy will build a floating production unit for $1.3 billion and an offshore platform for $700 million.The two offshore facilities will be installed in the Moho Nord oil field, about 80 kilometers from Pointe-Noire on the country’s southern

President Park Geun-hye called for a change in the nation’s economic paradigm to foster coprosperity between conglomerates and small and medium-sized firms.She made the instruction during policy briefings from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Small and Medium Business Administration at Cheong Wa Dae on Monday.“Our economy reliant on big companies should be transformed into an economic structure where exports and domestic consumption are boosted simultaneously, and conglomerates

Shareholders of Hyundai Merchant Marine, the nation’s No. 2 shipping firm, approved a controversial plan Friday to increase the limit of preferred shares it can issue, despite opposition from the second-largest shareholder, Hyundai Heavy Industries.The approval means that Hyundai Group, HMM’s largest shareholder, is expected to tighten its control over the shipping company in financial trouble, as it will be able to sell the preferred shares to a third party to secure funds, industry analysts sa

Samsung C&T, the construction and trading arm of Samsung Group, said it is considering returning the right to build a landmark building in Yongsan to state-run rail operator KORAIL to join collective efforts to revive the faltering Yongsan property development project.“The company is in internal discussions on whether to give up the construction right worth 1.4 trillion won ($1.2 billion) as KORAIL requested, which will make it possible for the railroad operator to restructure the Yongsan projec

New Korea Forest Service Minister Shin Won-sop revealed that the government agency will soon launch a “carbon sink” program through forestation.In a written interview with The Korea Herald, the minister also explained the importance of forests and the history of the nation’s policy change on tree-planting, stressing the benefits forests give to the public.He said the KFS has been also enhancing overseas tree-planting activities with the aim of increasing long-term domestic timber supply, securin

Thursday marks the first International Forest Day that the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in December last year to encourage all U.N. member countries to organize forest-related activities, including tree-planting campaigns.This new annual global celebration of forests builds on the success of the International Year of Forests in 2011 and provides a platform to raise awareness of the importance of forests and trees outside forests.On the first International Day of Forests, countries

This is the fourth in a series of case studies on the nation’s leading state-run companies which have made success stories overseas. ― Ed.KOGAS, which has imported LNG and supplied imported gas to local power companies since its foundation in 1983, last Thursday hosted a groundbreaking ceremony in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, in southeast Africa for its new overseas business project. Under the project, KOGAS will construct a 59-kilometer gas pipeline by October this year in Maputo and distribu

BERLIN ― The Fukushima nuclear disaster has affected the world’s nuclear energy policy for the past two years. Countries such as Germany have since undergone drastic changes in their nuclear energy policy in response to rising concerns over the safety of nuclear power plants. In May 2011, two months after the Fukushima nuclear accident, the German government immediately decided to shut down eight aged nuclear power plants. In July, Europe’s biggest economy announced that it would close its nine

The nation’s working-age population is expected to fall after peaking in 2021, a state-run think tank said on Sunday.The nation’s labor force participation rate, an indicator for the size of the working-age population of an economy, is forecast to hit a record high of 61.6 percent before falling steadily, the Korea Development Institute said. It added the rate was likely to fall to the 50 percent range in 2030, which means Korea will face a shortage of labor. An aging population and low birth ra