The South Korean government Monday denied it has finalized plans for shutting down the state-run Korea Coal Corp. due to declining profitability. “The government is currently mapping out a restructuring blueprint for state-run energy organizations, but nothing has been confirmed now,” said the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Energy in a statement. “Closing down coal mines is not possible without a mutual agreement between the workers and management.” The ministry released an official statement

Alarm bells are ringing in the imported foreign car market that has enjoyed double-digit on-year growth over the past six years, as sales have declined by 4 percent in January-April from the same period last year.Industry watchers said the downward trend has resulted from weaker sales of the three German car brands which dominate the market, growing distrust of inconsistent vehicle pricing and a stricter law on taxation of company vehicles. Among them, the slowdown of diesel-powered German car s

The Seoul prosecutors’ office said on Friday it searched Audi Volkswagen Korea’s headquarters office and two of its PR agencies this week on allegations that the automaker cheated on its fuel-efficiency test results. “We have grounds to believe the test results submitted to the Korean government were rigged,” said the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, referring to documents sent to the related ministries in 2013 and 2014.  (Yonhap)The prosecution said it recently discovered a discrepan

The nation’s largest automotive company Hyundai Motor Group offered a peep into its wearable robot technologies. Photos, posted on the group‘s blog Friday, show wearable suits like those seen from “Iron Man” movies, although Hyundai’s don‘t cover the whole body. The wearer’s physical strength increases by simply donning them, according to the company. “The wearable robots, being developed with the aim of mass production, can be used for various purposes,” Hyundai Motor Group’s spokesperson told

KT, the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier, is likely to be chosen as electric vehicle maker Tesla’s partner for telematics technology solutions, according to industry sources familiar with the matter.“KT is highly likely to partner with Tesla to work in this field,” a source told The Korea Herald on Wednesday.Tesla reportedly plans to roll out its flagship models Model X and Model S in Korea early next year ahead of its release of less expensive Model 3 probably in 2018. Telematics technolo

Eight Korean duty-free operators have colluded to fix foreign exchange rates for the past five years, the nation‘s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday. The Fair Trade Commission said that it issued correction orders to the eight major duty-free shops run by Lotte, Shilla, SK Networks’ Walkerhill, Dongwha and the Korea Tourism Organization. According to the commission, the duty-free shop operators jointly decided the won-dollar exchange rate through phone calls from 2007 to 2012. The price-fixing e

More than half the employees working in the nation’s automotive industry said they would consider a Tesla car for their future purchase of an electric vehicle, a survey found Wednesday. Blind, a social app provider that operates anonymous bulletin boards for employees of a specific company or an industry overall, conducted the survey on 164 members of its auto section. According to the survey, 53.7 percent of respondents said fully-electric vehicles would not become a general trend in the nation

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won met with the visiting prime minister of Kuwait in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss partnerships, with the aim of speeding up its business in the Middle East. Chey and Prime Minister Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah agreed on cooperating in diverse sectors including energy, chemistry, new energy and infrastructure, a company official said.  SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won (left) talks with Prime Minister of Kuwait Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah on Tuesday (SK Group)“SK Gr

The labor union members of Hyundai Heavy Industries have demanded that the world’s top shipbuilder allow them to participate in management amid a looming labor strife over restructuring.Union leader Baek Hyung-rok met the company’s chief executive Kwon Oh-gap on Tuesday to reportedly call for the right to choose an outside director, alongside negotiations over wage rise and job security that kicked off in the day.“We don’t expect such a right will significantly change the management system. It i

Audi Korea unveiled the all-new luxury sedan Audi A4 in Seoul on Tuesday. The new sedan has 252 horsepower, a maximum torque of 38.0 kg.m. and a combined fuel efficiency of 12.5 kilometers per liter. The starting price of all-new Audi A4 is 49.5 million won ($42,185). (Audi Korea)

The South Korean military opened an investigation into the indigenously developed military helicopter Surion after some of the fleet had cracked windshields and other cracking problems, the defense procurement agency said Monday."Some of the (locally operational) 40 or so Surions have shown problems on their airframes," Kim Si-cheol, spokesman at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), said in a press briefing earlier in the day.Currently, the DAPA is consulting the chopper's prod

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been given the new title of the chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in a high-profile party congress which kicked off last week, a Japanese media report said Monday.At the first party congress in 36 years, the North's leader was bestowed with the newly-created title earlier in the day, according to Japan-based broadcaster NHK.The decision came as the country planned to elect the North's leader to "the top post" of the WPK at the party gatherin

Tesla Motors Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is known for making the future come early. And yet, somehow, he's always running behind schedule. Some would call this a failure of management. But it might just be a business strategy: call it the Musk Doctrine. It goes something like this: People only do paradigm-shifting work when they’re under tremendous pressure, so the key is to ensure deadlines are always impossible. This could help explain why Musk has never launched a product on time

Dongkuk Steel Mill, the country’s third-largest steelmaker, said Monday that it would start the operation of its Brazil-based steel mill in June, in the hope that it would be able to reduce its reliance on imported steel plates. The steelmaker has imported steel plates, which are mainly used for shipbuilding, from Japan and China at a relatively higher price, company officials said. (Dongkuk Steel Mill)“We will now be able to have a stable supply of steel plates from the mill in Brazil, which is

South Korea’s car-sharing market is fast expanding with a growing number of young consumers wanting to experiment with a wide range of vehicles rather than own a car. To cash in on the subtle change in the car market, the nation’s industrial giants are responding to such consumer preferences. Retail giant Lotte Group and the nation’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group are already involved in businesses that cater to such demand and the nation’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor is also considerin

Hyundai Heavy Industries is highly likely to push for massive layoffs amid a prolonged recession in the global shipbuilding sector and the government’s move to restructure the ailing industry. Over the past few weeks, the troubled world’s No. 1 shipbuilder is rumored to be planning an additional cut of 3,000 employees -- most likely from its production line -- in the form of voluntary retirement programs. The firm already cut around 60 executives in April and around 1,500 office workers last yea

Money-losing Hyundai Merchant Marine and Hanjin Shipping have recently filed for creditor-led rehabilitation programs. There is another thing in common between the two shipping giants. They were led by female leaders, who suddenly transformed into chairwomen from housewives after the deaths of their husbands. Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, 61, who stepped down from the HMM board of directors in March, began to run the conglomerate in 2003 when her husband Chung Mong-hun -- fifth son of

포스코그룹의 대표계열사 포스코에너지가 수년간 지속된 사업 부진을 타개하기 위해 그룹 최초로 5월 초 인력 구조조정에 나선다. 포스코에너지의 감축 대상은 신성장동력으로 추진하고 있는 연료전지 사업분야로 알려졌다.민간 최대 LNG 발전사인 포스코에너지는 전력 공급과잉으로 지난 수 년간 주력사업인 LNG 발전소 가동률이 급격히 떨어져 매출 하락세가 지속되어 회사 전체가 위기에 직면해 있다. 현 추세가 계속되면 작년 3분기에 창사 이래 최초 적자를 기록한 포스코에너지는 올해 처음으로 적자로 전환될 것으로 예상된다. 업계 관계자는 코리아헤럴드에 “포스코에너지는 최근 400명 정도에 달하는 연료전지사업부에서 조기희망퇴직 프로그램(ERP)를 통해 약 40퍼센트의 인력 감축을 단행하기로 결정했다”고 말했다. 그는 ‘‘포스코에너지의 LNG 사업은 기술인력이 많아 인력 감축이 힘들어 최근 지지부진한 연료전지사업을 축소하는 쪽으로 결론 낸 것으로 안다“고 덧붙였다. 포스코에너지는 2003년 연료전지를

POSCO Energy, a key affiliate of steelmaking giant POSCO Group, is set to cut its workforce via a voluntary layoff program early this month, targeting the fuel cell business that is considered its future growth engine, an industry source told The Korea Herald.The nation’s largest private natural gas power generator has suffered from dwindling profits for the past few years, affected by the continued fall in its LNG power plant operation rate. “With the approval of POSCO management, the energy ar

Koreans who seek fulfillment in their lifestyle need to add more colors to their homes, said eminent Italian designer and architect Alessandro Mendini in an interview with The Korea Herald on Thursday. “Korean apartment buildings, which are stereotyped as gloomy gray and rectangle, have hardly changed since I first came here 15 years ago,” Mendini, who has visited Korea around 40 times during the period, said in an interview at POSCO Engineering & Construction’s headquarters in Songdo. The Itali