The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Wednesday urged the Korean government to carefully handle the base wage policy, ahead of the court‘s ruling on Kia Motors’ case scheduled for Thursday. AmCham expressed concerns that the Seoul Central District Court ruling against Kia Motors may bring in great impacts on the overall competiveness of the nation‘s economy. The court is to rule on whether to acknowledge the workers‘ demand to recognize their bonuses as part of their ordinary wages.  (Yon

LG CNS, a LG Group subsidiary focusing on information technology services, released its own artificial intelligence-based data analysis platform DAP, the company said Tuesday.DAP provides around 30 services including data collection, data visualization, data analysis, digital marketing tools and chatbot services, it said. The cloud-based DAP also allows users to save time setting up a hardware system, which usually takes one to two months. DAP can run data analysis at a significantly faster spee

Homeplus has introduced Italian quality wines at its local branches as a part of the company’s campaign promoting premium wines sold at reasonable prices in the Korean market, the company said Tuesday.Last year, Homeplus launched its Superstar project, bringing in quality wines from outside the country and offering them at lower prices to expand the nation’s wine market base. Italy’s Tuscany-based Banfi wines are displayed at a Homeplus branch in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, Tuesday. (Homeplus)This year,

Drugmakers in Korea have decided to hike prices of cold medications due to increases in manufacturing costs.South Korean drugmaker Dong-A Pharmaceutical has said it will hike the supply price of its flagship over-the-counter cough and cold medication Panpyrin Q by 10 percent, starting from Sept. 1. Local drug stores are expected to increase their retail prices for the product accordingly. A box of five 20-milliliter Panapyrin Q bottles is currently sold at between 2,000 won ($1.80) and 2,200 won

South Korean refiner S-Oil signed a 15-year liquefied natural gas supply contract with Malaysia’s Petronas, the company said Friday. Under the contract, S-Oil will start importing 700,000 tons of LNG per year from April 2018 to April 2033. S-Oil CEO Othman Al-Ghamdi (third from left) poses with Petronas Upstream CEO Datuk Anuar Taib (third from right) at the signing of a supply contract Thursday at the Petronas headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (S-Oil)“With the latest deal, the company has

Korea’s major shipmakers are striving to secure orders, as several global oil majors are resuming plans to build offshore plants with oil prices bouncing back.Korea’s leading shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industry and Samsung Heavy Industry will participate in bids for British oil giant BP’s Tortue gas project off Senegal and Mauritania, the companies said Thursday.  (Yonhap)The project led by BP is estimated to be worth $5.8 billion. Of the total investment, some $1 billion is forecast to be spent

Four workers have been killed in an explosion at the STX Offshore & Shipbuilding plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, fire authorities said Sunday.The blast occurred at around 11:37 a.m. when workers were doing painting works inside of a 12-meter-deep tank of a 74,000-ton oil carrier.STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, a Korean shipyard company focusing on small- and mid-sized ship constructions, has been schedule to deliver the carrier to a Greek shipping company Andriaki Shipping by October.

Korea’s top refining company SK Energy has signed a deal to import US crude oil in an attempt to seek better profits on the back of recent price hikes in crude from the Middle East.A shipment of 1 million barrels of US West Texas Intermediate is expected to arrive at the company’s refining facility in Ulsan in mid-October, the company said. (Yonhap)SK Energy’s order came as the prices of Middle East crude started to increase after OPEC decided to cut its output through March next year to prop up

South Korean cable manufacturer LS Cable & System has won an optical cables supply deal in Italy, the company said Wednesday.The deal signed with Italy’s telecoms network company Open Fiber is estimated to be worth 20 billion won ($17.6 million), the largest amount of optical cables to be exported by a Korean company, according to the company. LS will be providing optical cables for Open Fiber’s high speed network construction project until 2018.  (LS Cable & System)Open Fiber is owned by the st

Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Joong-keun was inaugurated as the 17th chairman of the Korean Senior Citizens Association. On Wednesday, the KSCA held an event in Seoul to celebrate the designation, with around 400 participants in attendance, including government officials and lawmakers.  Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Joong-keun delivers his speech at an inauguration ceremony held in Seoul on Wednesday. (Shim Woo-hyun/The Korea Herald)Upon his inauguration, Lee pledged to speak for the 7 million senio

South Korea became the world’s fifth-largest market for German automaker Mercedes-Benz in the first half of this year, backed by the brisk sales of its E Class and S Class sedans, the company said Monday.Korean customers purchased a total of 37,723 Mercedes-Benz vehicles during the first half of 2017, up by 54 percent compared with the same period last year, the carmaker’s Seoul branch said. E-Class Coupé (Mercedes-Benz)Last year, the country was the eighth-largest market for the German luxury c

British American Tobacco is to roll out its own tobacco heating device in mid-August to compete in the Korean market, where demand for such devices is increasing.BAT Korea will hold a press conference Thursday to promote its own heat-not-burn tobacco device Glo, and disclose when the device will be on sale here, company officials said Sunday. (British American Tobacco Korea)The company is hoping to boost sales by filling the increasing local demand, which Philip Morris International’s heat-not-b

The South Korean government is setting out to amend its energy law and elevate the status of the national energy committee to push ahead with its energy policies, which are already facing resistance from the relevant industries and residents.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Wednesday that it had submitted a revision proposal to the National Assembly for review in the hope that it will be put to a vote at the plenary session before the end of the year. (Yonhap)The proposed amendmen

Gasoline-powered vehicles recovered domestic market share here in the first half of this year, on the back of weaker demand for diesel cars, industry data showed Tuesday. The number of new gasoline vehicles registered in the first half accounted for 50.2 percent, surpassing the 50 percent mark for the first time since 2013, when gasoline-powered vehicles posted 52.7 percent, according to data compiled by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association. (Yonhap)In contrast, the market share of die

(Yonhap)South Korea’s overall domestic industrial output decreased again in June, recording a three-month decline for the first time since July 2013, largely due to decreases in the refining and semiconductor sectors. But consumption increased by 1.1 percent compared with the previous month, according to data released by Statistics Korea on Friday.The country’s overall output in June fell by 0.1 percent, with the semiconductor sector posting a 3.9 percent decline in production, following an 8.9

SK Innovation, South Korea’s biggest oil refiner in terms of market share, saw its second-quarter earnings drop by more than half on-quarter, largely due to the slump in international oil prices, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. SK Innovation’s sales in the second quarter reached 10.5 trillion won ($9.4 billion), up 2.7 percent, but its operating profit dropped to 421 billion won, down by 62.4 percent on-year from 1.1 trillion won.  (Yonhap)Compared with the previous quarter, the compa

The Korea Gas Corporation said Thursday that the company conducted safety inspections at its two local liquefied natural gas facilities from July 11-12. The safety checks were conducted as a part of the government’s summer electricity supply plan, it added.  A Kogas gas supply facility in Busan (Kogas)With Kogas Senior Executive Vice President Kim Young-do in charge, the nation’s largest gas buyer checked the storage and supply equipment at its facilities.“With thorough safety inspections, Kogas

South Korea’s leading chemical firm LG Chem on Tuesday sent out a statement apologizing for the alleged wire-tapping of its labor union members at its Iksan plant in North Jeolla Province. LG Chem said that it has requested a full-scale investigation with the authorities to find the facts surrounding the scandal.The wire-tapping issue broke out Thursday as an LG Chem union member reportedly found a wire-tapping device in their staff lounge. (Yonhap)Upon finding the device, LG Chem union members

South Korea’s Environment Ministry said Friday that it would start investigating Mercedes-Benz’s vehicles over alleged breaches of diesel emissions regulations. Starting August, the ministry will conduct periodic inspections as well as defect investigations for 47 Mercedes-Benz models, powered by OM642 or OM651 diesel engines.  (Yonhap)The number of vehicles in question is around 110,000 units, according to the company. The National Institute of Environmental Research will be responsible for the

South Korea’s state-run utility provider Korea Electric Power Corp. on Wednesday held the Korea-Kazakhstan Energy Forum to discuss future cooperation, the company said Thursday. Kepco CEO Cho Hwan-eik and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency CEO Kim Jae-hong participated in the event, along with 150 other attendees including government officials and experts. They discussed current trends and joint business opportunities in the energy industry. Kepco CEO Cho Hwan-eik delivers a speech at the c