Monthly household income in South Korea grew 2.8 percent on-year during the second quarter, thanks in part to improving labor market conditions that resulted in more employment, a government report said Friday.The income of households consisting of two members or more averaged 4.15 million won ($4,060) per month during the April-June period, up from 4.04 million won a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea. When adjusted for inflation, income grew 1.1 percent.The growth rate,

S-Oil, a leading refinery in Korea, said Thursday it held an event to donate customized learning aids to 90 disabled students from low-income families worth 100 million won ($97,000).The Saudi Aramco-invested oil refinery launched the campaign to help disabled children from less-privileged homes in 2010. “The program was designed to prevent these underprivileged youth from being deprived of learning opportunities due to their physical disabilities,” the company said in a press release.The event

Yuhan-Kimberly, a leading consumer goods maker in Korea, said Wednesday it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Social Solidarity Bank and the Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the Aged in an effort to launch a retail business for seniors citizens. “The three companies agreed to launch a senior-friendly retail enterprise in October, in which seniors will comprise more than 70 percent of its entire workforce,’’ a company official said. “The new company will offer consumer goods

A refreshing change has set in on the retail streetscape of South Korean cities that sets them apart from the shopping center-dominated streets of China. In 2014, Seoul, one of the top 10 biggest metropolitan cities in the world, seems finally to have put the financial crisis behind it and there are signs of development activity once more. In contrast to the huge volumes of new supply we see in China, the Seoul retail property scene looks remarkably healthy.There is a vibrant cafe and restaurant

Hyundai Motor Group has notched up a number of achievements in its carmaking business over the past decade, becoming the world’s fifth-largest automaker in 2009.However, one area in which it has failed to make progress is labor relations. The automotive group is poised to set a national record, as its union prepares for its 24th annual strike this month ― the most strikes for a single company in Korea. The group’s unionized workers, most of whom are production workers, have taken industrial acti

Daewoo International, the trading arm of POSCO, South Korea’s top steelmaker, has purchased a 24.1 percent stake in an Indonesian copper mine, the company said Friday.“With the first deal in natural resources, the company will expand the business portfolio in energy sector,” the company said in a press release. The trading company signed the deal for 46 billion won ($45 million) with Australian mining company Finders Resources, which owns and runs the mine on Indonesia’s southwestern Wetar Islan

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest handset maker, struck a deal with the International Olympic Committee on Sunday to officially sponsor the Olympic Games until 2020, the South Korean company said. Under the deal, Samsung will sponsor South Korea’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018 and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 by supplying a wide range of devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops for athletes and other participants. IOC President Thomas Bach and Lee Jae-yong, th

Foreign investors have continued to reduce their stakes in Hyundai Department Store, one of the top three premium retail chains in Korea, since 2012 due to rising doubt over the retailer’s growth potential, industry watchers said. Hyundai Department Store, listed on the nation’s main bourse, is a flagship affiliate of Hyundai Department Store Group, a family-controlled retail conglomerate in Korea. “The operating profit of the company fell for the sixth consecutive quarter in the second quarter

Last June, the Korean government announced the manufacturing industry innovation 3.0 strategy for creative economy to promote projects to intellectualize and optimize the entire production process at 10,000 smart plants by 2020 with an investment of 1 trillion won ($972 million). Germany also has been pursuing “industry 4.0” to boost its national competitiveness. In the future of manufacturing, smart factories will become a true convergence of the real and virtual production worlds, and there ar

Family-controlled Orion Group, the nation’s second-biggest snack giant after Lotte, took a bold measure last week by dismantling the office of chairman, which had served as the control tower for the group for decades. Prior to this, group chairman Tam Chul-kon had governed the group with his wife and vice chairman Lee Hwa-kyung since he took up the chairmanship in 2003. Tam is a son-in-law of the late Orion founder Lee Yang-gu.  Tam Chul-kon“There is no doubt that dismantling the control tower w

Sales of low-grade corporate bonds, once shunned by investors over high-rated corporate debts and safer government debts, rose sharply last month, showing signs of emerging good investment tools, data indicated Friday. A total of 5.9 trillion won ($5.69 billion) worth of corporate bonds were sold in July, up 2.2 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Financial Investment Association. The sales of corporate bonds rated “AA” or above totaled 4.45 trillion wo

Foreign investors continued to pour into South Korean stocks last month, extending their fourth straight month of net buying, with their investment jumping more than fivefold from a month earlier, the country’s financial watchdog said Friday.Offshore investors snapped up a net 3.6 trillion won ($3.49 billion) worth of local shares in July, compared with a net purchase of 714 billion won in the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.The value of their shareholdings came to

Asiana Airlines, South Korea’s second-largest full-service carrier, said Friday its operating profit turned to the black in the second quarter, posting 2.98 billion won ($2.87 million). In the same period a year ago, the company posted an operating loss of 29.93 billion won. Despite a surplus in operating profit, however, the carrier posted a net loss of 11.75 billion won ($11.3 million) in the second quarter, mainly due to a rise in one-off non-business spending and a stronger won.“Because of A

POSCO, the nation’s top steelmaker, said Friday it would reorganize its affiliates to create larger entities in order to reduce business overlap and speed up corporate decision making, considered vital to coping with the rapidly changing business climate.In a board meeting at POSCO’s Seoul office, the steelmaker said all steel distribution and processing affiliates that handle materials such as carbon steel, stainless steel and certain steel plate products will come under the control of POSCO Pr

STX Group confirmed on Thursday that it has signed a deal to sell STX Finland to a consortium formed by the Finnish government and German shipbuilder Meyer Werft.“The group expects the deal to spur its restructuring efforts to normalize its management,” a company official said, declining to comment on the price. Under the deal, Meyer Werft will secure 70 percent of the yard, while the Finnish state goes home with the remaining 30 percent.The Finnish government reportedly joined the deal to quell

Despite the ongoing political turmoil in Iraq, sales of oil the state-run Korea Gas Corp. is producing from oil fields in the region has grown over the past four years, the company said this week. As of this month, the gas giant’s accumulative sales of oil produced in the Zubair field near Basra of southern Iraq has exceeded 10 million barrels. “The turmoil in Iraq is occurring in northwestern Iraq, which is located a considerable distance from the Zubair field, so it has not disrupted our outpu

Despite Hyundai Group’s declining profit, chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun appears determined to push forward with the group’s long-term plans for capitalizing on inter-Korean economic cooperation projects ― namely tours to Mount Geumgangsan that were suspended under the former administration when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier. Her latest visit to North Korea on Monday reflected such intentions, according to industry sources. At 9:40 a.m., the chairwoman arrived at the

SK Innovation, a holding company that includes SK Group’s energy businesses, said Sunday it would step up its entry into unconventional oil exploration in line with a paradigm shift in the global energy industry. “The shale gas boom in the U.S. has had a ripple effect in the global energy scene. The company is considering transforming SK E&P America into a global hub for the group’s unconventional energy business beyond oil and gas,” SK Innovation vice chairman Koo Ja-young said. He unveiled the

Microsoft Corp. has sued Samsung Electronics, claiming the South Korean smartphone maker breached a 2011 agreement to share patents.Under the agreement, the two companies cross-licensed patents for each other’s products. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, got royalties from Samsung for phones and tablets that use some of the U.S. company’s patented technology. The two companies said they would work together to develop and market Windows Phone, Microsoft’s mobile software. The softwar

This artistic rendering shows the waste-to-power plant to be built by POSCO E&C in Poland by 2015.POSCO Engineering, a leading builder in Korea, said Friday it has finished installing a boiler drum for its waste-to-power project in Krakow, Poland.“The event shows the company’s first project in Eastern Europe will be on time,” a company official said. The facility is planned to be completed by December 2015.The construction arm of POSCO won a $250 million contract to build the waste-to-power plan