South Korea’s antitrust watchdog is probing the US franchise Subway over an allegation that it forced a local franchisee to shut down his shop without a proper reason, said officials and local news reports Sunday.　The Fair Trade Commission’s Seoul office recently concluded in its preliminary investigation that the American franchise might have violated the local franchise business law and filed the case to an in-house judging committee.The probe began as one store owner of Subway cha

South Korea’s declining exports are predicted to turn around in the first quarter of next year on the back of rising demand for chips and recovery in the global economy, a trade association said Sunday. “The nation’s exports are expected to bottom out this month and turn positive from the first quarter of next year due to the recovery in chip unit prices,” said Moon Byung-ki, a senior researcher at the Korea International Trade Association’s trend analysis division,

The Korea International Trade Association held the first Korea-Turkmenistan business council with the Turkmenistan Chamber of Commerce on Thursday in Seoul as a follow-up to the summit between the two nations held in April. The council was held to discuss how Korean companies can enter into promising fields in Turkmenistan such as energy, transportation, water environment and industries, including textiles, information and communications technology and shipbuilding, KITA said. The plenary s

South Korea is hosting an international renewable energy conference this week to discuss the global climate crisis and measures to expand renewable energy use with around 3,500 participants from 108 nations. The International Renewable Energy Conference, which kicked off Wednesday in Seoul, is a biannual energy forum. The three-day event is being attended by government officials from 59 countries, including the US, Germany and China, international organizations, including the International Renew

South Korea’s top antitrust regulator warned Tuesday that unfair intra-trading deals would be closely monitored to see whether they benefit owner families of conglomerates, during a morning meeting attended by company executives, including from Samsung and Hyundai. “The Fair Trade Commission does not currently impose any specific sanctions or directly intervene in the operations of conglomerates for their high economic concentration or influence of owner families on the entire group

South Korea’s information communications technology exports have declined for 11 straight months due mainly to a slowdown in demand for memory chips, data showed on Monday. According to the Trade Ministry, Korea’s ICT exports stood at $15.8 billion in September, down 22 percent from the same period last year. The on-year decline has continued for 11 consecutive months since November last year. The shipment of chips last month stood at $8.5 billion, a 31.5 percent drop on-year. D

JINCHEON, North Chungcheong Province -- At Hanwha Q Cells’ factory in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, there are hardly any workers. The five assembly lines -- 330 meters wide and 100 meters long -- are run by eight workers each. The high-quality solar cell and module manufacturer claims it is one of the most automated factories in the global industry.  “Automation is important. When an employee touches cells or modules, fingerprints or microcracks can be left on the produc

FOREIGN COMPANY DAY -- Winners pose for a photo on 2018 Foreign Company Day in Seoul on Nov. 5, 2018. This year on Nov. 4, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is hosting 2019 Foreign Company Day at Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas. Organized by the Korea Foreign Company Association, the annual event is held to acknowledge foreign-invested companies and related organizations that have contributed to the domestic economy. (FORCA)

SK Global Chemical is set to acquire French chemical firm Arkema’s functional polyolefins business, in the latest move to boost its packaging business, the firm said Tuesday. The acquisition, worth 335 million euros ($369 million), is expected to be finalized by the second quarter of next year. The proposed deal is currently under review by antitrust authorities.“This will give SK Global Chemical the competitive edge in American and European markets, where packaging industries are hi

Samsung SDI said it planned to adopt a special extinguishing system for its energy storage systems to prevent fires at a cost of about 200 billion won ($169 million), the firm said Monday. The special extinguishing system comprised of advanced chemicals and blockers of thermal diffusion can prevent fires from spreading to nearby cells even if a cell ignites, according to the battery maker. The company plans to apply the system to all of its new energy storage systems and also to the existing one

Hanwha Group’s defense units will showcase their latest technologies at North America’s largest land-power exposition in Washington this week, the company said Sunday. Hanwha Corp., Hanwha Defense and Hanwha Systems will share a booth at the 2019 Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Association of the US Army, which takes place from Monday to Wednesday, local time. In its ground system zone, Hanwha will present its newest technologies, such as the Redback armored car, which was

In the age of social media, where information spreads fast, companies need to rethink their risk management strategies by focusing more on the masses, said an American crisis management expert during a forum held by The Korea Herald on Friday. “We are living in a revolutionary period. We always talk about hardware and software, but this is not a technology revolution. This is an information revolution,” said Richard Levick of the Washington-based crisis management firm LEVICK during

Korea International Trade Association said Thursday its Chairman Kim Young-ju is slated to visit the US next week to expand economic and trade cooperation. He will be accompanied by executives of eight Korean companies, including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, Posco and Hyosung during his four-day visit starting Monday. Kim will meet with Kelly Ann Shaw, Trump’s special assistant and senior director for international trade, to highlight the importance of the two nations as a secu

South Korea and Japan are slated to have bilateral consultations in Geneva on Friday, a first step toward resolving a trade dispute triggered by Japan’s export restrictions, officials said Thursday.Since Sept. 20, when Tokyo responded to Seoul’s request for bilateral consultations in accordance with the World Trade Organization’s rules, the two countries have discussed details such as dates and times through diplomatic channels and decided to send director-level representatives

The Korea International Trade Association on Tuesday held a seminar on technological cooperation between Germany and Korea to explore ways to improve the competitiveness of the materials, parts and equipment industries, in response to growing uncertainty in the global trade market. Over 150 participants from Korean and German companies and research organizations joined the event to seek breakthroughs through supply chain diversification and technology exchanges amid an uncertain trade market due

Hyundai Heavy Industries has been grappling with growing opposition from workers against a merger with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. In March, HHI signed a formal deal, worth an estimated 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion), with the state-run Korea Development Bank to buy its smaller rival DSME. The deal will be completed when the world’s two largest shipbuilders get approval from antitrust watchdogs in Japan, China, Kazakhstan and the European Union. The authorities will r

Over the past five years, Lotte Group was the South Korean conglomerate that received the highest number of sanctions from the nation’s antitrust watchdog, data showed Friday. According to the data supplied by Rep. Chun Hae-chul of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the Fair Trade Commission sanctioned Lotte on 81 occasions between 2014 and 2018. The group that received the next-greatest number of sanctions was Hyundai Motor Group with 76, followed by Kolon Group with 63, SK Group with

Public institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy have not recovered financially from past failures of overseas resource development projects, data showed Thursday.According to data supplied by Rep. Wi Seong-gon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the combined debt of 41 ministry-affiliated public institutions stood at 182 trillion won ($150 billion) last year, up 8 trillion won from the previous year.  “The debt of the public organizations has grown

South Korean steelmaker Posco said Thursday it has hit the 1-billion ton milestone of crude steel production since 1973, amid intensifying oversupply globally. The volume is equivalent to the material needed to produce 1 billion midsized cars or 20,000 units of Lotte Tower, the nation’s tallest skyscraper in Seoul.Posco began producing the first molten metal at its blast furnace in 1973. It produced 1 million tons of crude steel, supplied steel for 25,000 cars and provided 12,000 compensat

LS Cable & System has received government certification for its national disaster safety products, becoming the first cable manufacturer to gain this recognition, the firm said Tuesday. The certified products are fireproof, and they emit less smoke and lower levels of toxic gas during a fire, according to the company. In the event of a fire, the company explained, durability is crucial for emergency lights, fire alarms, sprinklers, ventilators and evacuation facilities. The company&rsqu