South Korea’s imports of Japanese steel products increased for the first time in six months in September as the weak yen helped push down their prices, ringing alarm bells for local steelmakers that are already facing falling profitability amid low demand, industry data showed Sunday.According to the Korea Iron and Steel Association, South Korea imported a total of 678,000 tons of Japanese steel products, mostly steel plates, last month, up 10.7 percent from a year earlier.Local steelmakers led

The majority of South Koreans thinks the national economy will remain mired in a slump and face difficult times, a nationwide poll carried out by a leading business association said Sunday.The survey, conducted on 800 people over age 19, showed 73.2 percent of the respondents expressing pessimism about the state of the economy down the road with quite a few expecting things to get worse, the Federation of Korean Industries said. Of the total, 20.4 percent thought the economy will head downhill.

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Sunday that it has fined two major security and safety service providers a combined 5 billion won ($4.7 million) for hampering market competition through years-long covert cooperation.S1 Corp., an affiliate of Samsung Group, and ADT CAPS were fined 2.5 billion won each for sharing their equipment in provincial regions with a promise not to compete against each other in those areas, according to the Fair Trade Commission. The equipment sharing took place from

Lee Boo-jinLee Boo-jin, the eldest daughter of Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, is going through divorce proceedings, the company said Saturday.Ending a 15-year marriage, the 44-year-old CEO of Hotel Shilla, the group’s hotel unit, filed for divorce mediation with her husband Im Woo-jae, at the Seongnam branch of Suwon District Court on Wednesday, according to the company. Im serves as vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics. Born in 1968, Im joined Samsung C&T in 1995 and met the younger

Traditional handmade baby clothes with a modern twist are gaining popularity through word-of-mouth in the high-end baby wear market.“One-hundred percent hand-sewn baby clothes using traditional Korean fabric seem to appeal to moms, who look for items offering unique design and comfort to their newborn baby,” said Kang Keum-seong, who runs Viin Baby, a newborn baby wear brand based on the design of the traditional Korean hanbok. Kang, a famous traditional Korean patchwork “jogakbo” designer, debu

A visiting commercial aircraft market specialist forecast that the industry would continue to experience a boom in business, driven by a steady growth in plane orders over the next two decades. “As we look at the global aviation market, it’s a good market. Frankly, it is getting better,” Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a press conference at the Conrad Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday.  Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial A

The top management of state-run Korea Gas Corp. has been in Europe since the start of this month to help Daegu win its bid to host the 2021 World Gas Conference, the company said Tuesday. Visitors browse at exhibition booths set up at the 2014 Gastech Conference and Exhibition held from March 24-27 at KINTEX in Gyeonggi Province. KOGASDaegu, where KOGAS has moved its headquarters to from Seoul last month, served as the venue for the 22nd World Energy Congress in October last year.“The Gas Intern

Yu Kun-ha (right), head of the digital service center at Herald Corp., poses after signing a partnership agreement with Kim Kyu-tae, the senior managing director of the Association of High Potential Enterprises of Korea. The two sides will cooperate to globally promote Korean mid-sized firms. (Yoon Byung-chan/The Korea Herald)

SK Innovation, the holding company of SK Group’s energy sector, announced on Monday the start of commercial operations of its lubricant production plant in Cartagena, Spain, as part of the company’s aim toward globalization. “With the production line in Spain, SK Lubricants has become the world’s third-largest lubricant oil producer behind Exxon Mobil and Shell, with an expanded daily output of 70,800 barrels,” SK Innovation said in a press release. “The joint investment in Spain is helping SK L

South Korean stocks extended their loss to the seventh consecutive day on Monday as the won’s sharp decline to the U.S. dollar stoked concerns of an outflow of foreign capital from the local stock market, analysts said. The local currency dropped against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 7.86 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,968.30. Trading volume was moderate at 315 million shares worth 4.2 trillion won ($3.93 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers, 483 to 357

South Korea should no longer expect a “trickle-down” of benefits from conglomerates and the rich to small companies and low-income earners, a local economics professor said, urging the government to seek a paradigm shift in its growth strategy. Korea has been considered a model country of “condensed” economic success from the ashes of the Korean War within a half century, heavily leaning on the spillover effect from the growth of conglomerates. “Big-businesses-friendly economic policies with an

The South Korean stock market is likely to continue its downward march this week as investors remain cautious over the volatile currency, downbeat corporate earnings, and foreign investors’ massive sell-offs, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost some 2.5 percent to close at 1,976.16 last Thursday over the previous week, the lowest since June 23 when it closed at 1,974.92 points, as foreign investors dumped market heavyweights amid increased currency risks a

South Korean retail giant Lotte Group is getting ready to open three completed commercial retail buildings on the lower part of the second Lotte World complex under construction in Songpa district, southern Seoul, within this month.Preparation efforts were boosted after Seoul City last Thursday approved the partial opening of the complex, ending months of controversy over its safety and other concerns. A department store, shopping malls and other entertainment facilities fill the lower areas alo

The South Korean economy is expected to expand 3.6 percent in 2015 from this year amid sluggish private consumption and low inflation, a private think tank forecast Sunday. The Hyundai Research Institute predicted Asia’s fourth-largest economy will likely grow 3.5 percent in the first half of next year and gain 3.6 percent in the second half.The think tank’s 2015 outlook is the same as its forecast of 3.6 percent for this year.HRI’s growth forecast for next year, however, is lower than a 4 perce

New foreign direct investment pledged to South Korea jumped 38 percent on-year in the first nine months of this year despite slowing economic growth at home and abroad, the government said Sunday.In the January-September period, the amount of new FDI pledges to South Korea came to $14.82 billion, up 37.9 percent from a year earlier and the highest-ever figure for the nine-month period, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The amount of new FDI that arrived here during the per

South Korea’s household loans extended by financial institutions are expected to surpass the 1 quadrillion won ($942.6 billion) mark this year, data showed Sunday.Outstanding household loans by financial institutions, including commercial lenders, insurers and financial agencies stood at 982.5 trillion won as of the end of the second quarter, according to data from the Bank of Korea. As of end-August, household loans reached 993 trillion won. If the trend keeps up, the country’s household loans

Whenever Kim Mi-sun, 36, who works at a local credit card company, wants to shop, she makes a beeline for foreign websites before she visits the offline stores. “I purchase almost all commodities, from beauty products to shoes, appliances and even blankets, through these online brand shops,” Kim said. She is a so-called “jikgu” customer, a Korean term coined from two words meaning “direct purchases.” These shoppers tend to shop directly from the websites operated by the brands they are looking f

Cheil Industries, an affiliate of Samsung Group, unveiled on Tuesday the updated version of Rogatis, its high-end men’s suit line, adopting smart solutions for the first time in the local fashion industry. “Rogatis, whose target customers are businessmen aged between 35 and 44, has been renewed in a bid to pioneer a ‘smart suit’ category in the fashion industry,” the firm’s vice president Choi Hoon, who supervised the project, said during a launch event at the Hilton hotel in Seoul. Inside a Rog

Car sharing, a form of short-term vehicle rental on an hourly or minute basis, is gaining popularity in major Korean cities as more individuals are recognizing it as a sustainable means of urban transportation.Further adding to the momentum, the Seoul Metropolitan Government in February launched a pilot car sharing service, dubbed Nanum Car (meaning “sharing” in Korean), to reduce the number of cars on the road as well as ease households’ financial burdens linked to car ownership.“Membership for

S-Oil, a leading refinery in Korea, joined the cheering squad rooting for the Saudi Arabian soccer team during the 2014 Asian Games. On Friday, the firm’s executives and employees waved Saudi Arabia’s national flag and shouted the names of each player during a soccer match between Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan in the final 16 at the Incheon Asian Games, held at the Goyang Sports Complex.Saudi Arabia defeated Uzbekistan 3-2 to advance to the final 8. S-Oil executives and employees, together with Sa