Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s top carmaker, has started producing heavy-duty trucks in China, a company official said Wednesday, joining an intensifying competition with rivals such as Daimler and Volvo for the Chinese market for big trucks. Production of the two-engine Trago Xcient luxury trucks recently began as Hyundai completed its commercial vehicle plant in Ziyuan, Sichuan province, said the official at Hyundai’s Beijing office. The new plant in Sichuan was completed about two years after H

The South Korean government said Wednesday that it has successfully sold $2 billion worth of foreign exchange equalization bonds. “The government has successfully sold $1 billion worth of dollar-denominated bonds and euro-denominated bonds worth about another $1 billion,” the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said.The dollar-denominated bonds with a 30-year maturity carry an interest rate of 4.143 percent. It marks the first time the country has issued foreign currency-denominated bonds with a 30

South Korean lenders are reaching out to wealthy Chinese customers as they seek new growth engines amid ultra-low interest rates and lackluster demand on their home turf.Local banks have been providing Chinese-language banking services to mostly blue-collar laborers in southwest Seoul. However, recent moves highlight their efforts to tap affluent Chinese who have already emerged as a major force in the retail sector. Woori Bank, the flagship unit of the nation’s biggest banking group, said Tuesd

Kia Motors, South Korea’s second-largest automaker, is recalling certain model year K7 passenger vehicles over problems with their wheels, the transportation ministry said Wednesday.According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the car’s aluminum wheels may crack, potentially causing the car to become unsafe to drive. The recall affects 2,595 cars produced between Sept. 21, 2012, and Aug. 27, 2013. Kia Motors, an affiliate of local industry leader Hyundai Motor, will provide f

It would be an understatement to say 2013 was a watershed year for POSCO Engineering & Construction, which has the ambitious goal of becoming one of the world’s top 10 global builders by 2020.The accumulated overseas orders for the company in Latin America, one of the builder’s key target overseas markets, exceeded $10 billion last year, according to the International Contractors Association of Korea, using data compiled between 1965 and 2013. The $10.1 billion was a record for a South Korean co

Employees of Hanwha Group, the country’s 10th-largest conglomerate by assets, are offering one-on-one online career-mentoring services to students in rural areas to help them explore career opportunities.The conglomerate on Tuesday agreed with ChildFund Korea and South Chungcheong Office of Education to organize the online mentoring program for students from five middle schools in rural areas for the next 12 months.“The program was developed as part of the group’s social responsibility efforts,”

Coupang, a leading social commerce company in Korea, announced on Thursday it raised $100 million from Sequoia, a California-based venture capital firm. It is the first time Sequoia has injected funds to a Korean company, Coupang added, claiming that Sequoia’s investment decision reflects the U.S. investor’s high interest in the nation’s fast growing e-commerce market. “Most of all, top management of Sequoia was impressed with Coupang’s world-class shopping experiences offered to customers throu

Olympus, a precision technology leader, said Thursday its three medical device products attained Edison Awards.Three products awarded are Endoeye Flex 3D, Thunderbeat and the BF-190 Bronchoscope, all of which were recognized at the awards ceremony in the category of science and medicine, the company said. The distinguished Edison Awards, named after American inventor Thomas Alva Edison, is offered to innovative companies and products in the world. Frank Bonafilia, Edison Awards’ executive direct

POSCO E&C, a construction arm of steelmaker POSCO, said Friday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a mineral explorer to develop a large vanadium mine in Australia’s Northern Territory. The company said the deal reached late last week with Australian mineral resource developer TNG calls for joint feasibility studies to be conducted at the Mount Peake mine. Once a decision is made to move forward, POSCO E&C will take part in the construction and engineering aspects of the project. Th

LG Electronics traded near this year’s high on Friday on hopes that its latest high-end smartphone, the G3, would help pull its money-losing handset business out of the red.Shares of LG Electronics closed at 72,900 won on the Seoul bourse, down 1.62 percent from this year’s high of 74,100 won, after hitting an intra-day high of 74,800 won at one point. For the past four sessions, its stock price has gained more than 6 percent as foreign and institutional investors scooped up the tech giant. On W

POSCO, the nation’s top steelmaker, is spurring global expansion in its automotive steel sheet business, having set the goal of becoming the world best steelmaker in this segment. POSCO is currently one of the top three steelmakers along with ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel in annual production capacity of car steel products. “Steel products used for cars is one of the seven strategic product categories for the group’s future growth,’’ POSCO chairman Kwon Oh-joon said in a recent investor relatio

A growing number of countries, particularly developing countries in Asia, are seeking to learn about Korea’s forest rehabilitation and forest management know-how. Korea has worked to green up its open spaces over the past 40 years, and its successful reforestation policy has been looked on as a benchmark for countries seeking reforestation in a short period of time.“Inquires from overseas have varied from (questions about) reforestation to forest welfare policies,” Korea Forest Service Minister

The South Korean stock market is likely to gather ground this week, helped by overseas investors, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 0.17 percent from the previous week to close at 2,017.17 on Friday, the highest of this year, supported mainly by eased concern over the Chinese economy.South Korean stocks closed almost flat Monday on concerns over the won’s rise against the greenback, which could inflict foreign-exchange losses on exporters.Seoul shares

Apple, following a jury verdict that Samsung Electronics infringed three of its patents, is seeking a U.S. sales ban on some older models of the South Korean company’s smartphones.Apple, which on May 2 won $120 million of the $2.2 billion it sought, identified nine devices it wants barred in a filing yesterday with U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California.Winning a ban may prove difficult for Apple because Koh, who also presided over the companies’ first U.S. trial in 2012, twice rej

Cuba’s deputy trade minister will visit South Korea this week, becoming the highest ranking official from the Latin American country to do so since the countries’ diplomatic ties were severed in 1959, a local trade agency said Sunday. Ileana Nunez Mordoche, deputy minister for foreign trade and investment, will arrive here Monday for an investment fair and hold one-on-one meetings with South Korean firms interested in investing in Cuba, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.Th

North Korea’s imports of digital television sets from China have more than quadrupled this year, a South Korean trade group said Sunday, amid reports that the country is moving to introduce digital TV broadcasting.In the first four months of the year, China shipped digital TVs amounting to some $17.66 million to North Korea, up 338 percent from $4.02 million during the same period last year, according to the Korea International Trade Association.The figure is the fifth-largest amount for any sin

South Korean companies’ dividend payouts to foreign investors surged nearly 14 percent from a year earlier in 2013, partly reflecting a growth in foreign investment in the local market, related data showed Sunday. According to the Korea Securities Depository, local firms that settle their annual accounts in December paid a combined total of 4.63 trillion won ($4.51 billion) in dividends to foreigners last year, up 13.9 percent from 2012. The increase was largely attributed to the payouts by Sams

The state-run Korea Post offering postal banking services said on Sunday that it fully recovered from a computer network failure that occurred early Saturday morning. A computer system failure caused suspension in postal banking services for more than two hours on Saturday, officials said.The accident happened around 5 a.m., bringing all Korea Post banking services down, such as withdrawals and deposits through ATMs, money transfers, credit card payments and smartphone banking. Normal services r

Kwon Ji-won, 33, who works as a human resources manager at a local consulting firm, is the certified shoe-buff at her office.“I prefer shoes to other fashion items as a form of expressing myself,” she said, introducing herself as a high-heel maniac. “Anything that has a high heel, I am all for it.”Aside from the stilettos, her collection runs a wide gamut from sneakers and sandals to ballerina flats and thigh-high boots. The price tags also are as diverse as her collection: Some are more than af

Philips named Dominique Oh, who previously led Philips Korea’s healthcare business unit, as the new country manager for the Korean market, the company said on Tuesday. Harjit Gill, CEO of Philips Asia-Pacific, said, “Dominique Oh, who has led the business sector successfully at multinational companies for over 20 years, will empower the organization’s new changes and improvement in capacity and take the lead in innovation in the Korean market at the same time, being the perfect person to enable