South Korea’s oil import prices are estimated to have fallen to their lowest in nearly four years last month as international prices plummeted, the Korea National Oil Corp. said Sunday.South Korea brought in 74.47 million barrels of crude oil in October at an average of $93.75 per barrel, KNOC’s statistics showed. This is a 15.5 percent markdown from $111 in the same month last year and is the lowest price since January 2011. It is also the first time that the price has fallen to under $100 sinc

Nearly half of South Korea’s conglomerates said they will tighten their belts next year while smaller companies hoped to keep their business status quo, a poll showed Sunday.In the poll conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on 228 companies, 51.4 percent of the leading large firms responded they will seek tight management for 2015, up 11.8 percentage points from a year earlier.As for the 158 small and medium-sized companies, 46.6 percent said they will keep the status quo next year. Only 1

The South Korean chief financial regulator said Sunday that he will remove hurdles to the fast-growing financial technology and fully support the sector to refresh the country’s long-sluggish financial industry.“I will change the paradigm of regulation on fintech,” Financial Services Commission chairman Shin Je-yoon told reporters. “I will minimize preregistering requirements, and at the same time clarify liability and maximize consumer protection and information security.”Fintech is a new type

SK Chemicals, a petrochemical unit of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group, said Sunday it has received a donation of $4.9 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its project to develop a vaccine for typhoid fever.The company said the fund will be used on joint clinical testing of the vaccine through September 2017 with the International Vaccine Institute, an international organization set up in 1997 by the United Nations Development Program devoted to fighting diseases

LG Electronics, currently in the middle of a legal dispute with rival Samsung Electronics after being accused of vandalizing Samsung products at German shops earlier this year, said Sunday it would take the local competitor to court for defamation and forging evidence.LG executive Jo Seong-jin, one of the company officials accused in the case, said he would comply with a prosecution summons for questioning next month.Samsung in September asked the prosecution to investigate senior executives of

POSCO, the nation’s top steelmaker, said Wednesday it would open a center for creative economy and innovation in Pohang, a major port city in North Gyeongsang Province, early next year. The steelmaker has sought to build a hub to help incubate start-ups at the home of its steel mill since President Park Geun-hye announced a three-year roadmap for economic growth last February. The administration said it would construct 17 nationwide centers for bolstering the creative economy and innovation by 2

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog on Thursday slapped 15.4 billion won ($13.9 million) in fines on four public corporations and their affiliates for unfair trade practices.The Fair Trade Commission said Korea Electric Power Corp., Korea Expressway Corp., Korea Railroad Corp. and Korea Gas Corp. and their affiliates favored some companies over others in their business dealings, while at the same time forcing partner companies to undercut prices.“All corporations cited for unfair practices have bee

A South Korean defense company is to finalize a deal to sell its indigenous self-propelled howitzers to Poland, military officials said Wednesday. Under the $320 million deal, Samsung Techwin will export 120 of the K-9 self-propelled howitzers to Huta Stalowa Wola, the Polish public defense company, a military official said. The deal is scheduled to be signed later in the day, he added.“The large-scale deal is expected to revitalize the defense industry, which has been weighed down by a series o

South Korean conglomerates are still sitting on large amounts of cash, wary of economic uncertainties and weak domestic demand, despite government pressure for them to spend more on wages, dividends and facilities, data showed Wednesday.The combined retained cash reserves of 83 listed firms affiliated with the country’s 10 largest business groups, excluding financial units, came to 537.8 trillion won ($496 billion) as of the end of September, up 5.7 percent from 508.7 trillion won at the end of

Producer prices in South Korea plunged to a near four-year low in November due to a continued fall in global oil prices, central bank data showed Wednesday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 104.14 in November, down 0.9 percent from the previous year, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.It marks the lowest level since 102.71 in December 2010 and marks a fourth straight month of on-year decline.The November figure was largely attribute

Hankook Tire, the nation’s largest car tire maker, confirmed Tuesday that it is considering a bid to take over Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp. in collaboration with Hahn & Company, a local private equity firm.“It is true that the company is in talks with Hahn & Company to make an equity investment in the car parts maker in an effort to expand its business domains,’’ said Lee Joo-hak, a spokesperson of the tire maker. Industry watchers forecast that Hankook Tire is expected to secure a 30 per

Public anger is rising against the lack of leadership screening at South Korea’s family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebol, in the wake of the “nut rage” incident caused by Korean Air heiress Heather Cho. “Looking at the backlash of the ‘nuts return’ scandal at Korean Air, big business circles are taking the situation more seriously and looking for lessons to be learned from it,’’ an official from a leading business association told The Korea Herald. Industry watchers said the nut scandal, cau

Chun Mi-jin, 36, who lives in an apartment complex with more than 1,000 households in western Seoul, has recently teamed up with a friend to buy a house.They bought a small, 30-year-old detached house with three bedrooms, located in Yeonhui-dong neighboring Yonsei University, for 550 million won ($499,600) to build a new home. “My friend and I made the joint investment to achieve our long-awaited dream ― return to Yeonhui-dong where we grew up. We are going to demolish the old house and build a

SK Group, the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, conducted a full-scale management shake-up on Tuesday, replacing heads of its key affiliates including SK Innovation and SK Telecom. Only SK hynix, the best-performing affiliate of the group, retained the current CEO Park Sung-wook.“The new CEOs are tasked to turn around the business with creative and innovative new strategies,” the group said in a press release.SK Group had long been expected to undergo a management reshuffle as the profitabili

The secret to becoming a long-surviving chief executive has become something of a buzzword in the country’s corporate world after LG Household & Health Care vice chairman Cha Suk-yong got an extension to his three-year contract fill 2017 on Nov 28.In the first half of the year, there were lingering rumors that Cha could leave the firm at the year’s end as he has already stepped down from the CEO post at the company’s flagship beauty brand The Face Shop. He also sold his shares in the firm ― 22,0

The sales of automobiles in South Korea are expected to rise 2.3 percent next year, aided by steady rise in demand for imported cars, data showed on Sunday.Sales of autos in the country are estimated at 1.65 million units next year, compared with this year’s projected 1.61 million units, according to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.The data showed sales of locally-produced autos would remain little changed at 1.4 million units next year compared to this year, while some 250,000 im

South Korean stock market has been in a relatively sharper slump compared with other regional rivals as local companies, undercut by a weak Japanese yen and a slowdown in economic growth, suffered a steep drop in their earnings, industry data showed on Sunday.South Korea’s key stock index, the KOSPI, declined 1.23 percent this year through Friday, ranking 12th among 14 regional stock indices, according to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange. The Shanghai Composite Index posted the biggest ga

South Korean stocks are likely to trade slightly higher this week as foreigners are expected to be in the net buying position amid the strengthening of U.S. dollar against the Korean won, though the gains will be limited due to a lack of upward momentum, analysts said Saturday. In the previous week, the Seoul bourse started the week on a negative note on the sluggish U.S. Black Friday sales and plunge in the global oil prices, but it rebounded in the mid-week on the upbeat U.S. Federal Reserve d

Two South Korean terrestrial broadcasting companies have broken a partnership with YouTube and joined with local Web portals to offer video content, as they seek greater control over their online content in an effort to secure new profit sources, industry sources said Sunday.Seoul Broadcasting System and Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. stopped providing free streaming of their regular shows and drama series on the world’s No. 1 video-sharing site, starting Dec. 1. CJ E&M Corp., the top media conglomer

The five units of South Korea’s utility giant Korea Electric Power Corp. said Sunday that they are considering participation in the nascent Rajin-Khasan project logistics project in a bid to reduce the costs of importing coal from Russia through North Korea.The Rajin-Khasan project, which is on a test run, is regarded as a starting point for economic cooperation among the two Koreas and Russia. Under the project, South Korea imports Russian coal through the North’s port of Rajin to the South’s P