Hyundai Motor Group said Friday that it has promoted Kia Motors Vice President Song Ho-sung to president and appointed Jochen Paesen to lead Kia Motors’ interior design team as a director. The company said the latest executive reshuffle is to execute the company’s future mobility vision and bring change to the current leadership.  President Song had previously led the automaker’s export sales, European sales and global business management teams, the company said. He is

South Korean firms are shutting down more facilities across the world given the coronavirus spread, according to industry sources Friday. Samsung Electronics has reportedly decided to shut down its home appliance factory in Campinas, Brazil, following the closure of its smartphone plant in Manaus in the country earlier this week. The Campinas facility will be closed for two weeks from Monday through April 12. The shutdown of the Manus plant will also be extended to April 12. LG Electronics

LG Corp. CEO Koo Kwang-mo, leader of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate, said Friday he will focus on risk management amid the global coronavirus pandemic. At the company’s annual shareholders meeting held at its headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, Koo highlighted that LG Group will need to be unshaken by the current risks and rather focus on prioritizing customer value. “Amid the persisting uncertainties triggered by the global coronavirus spread in the busine

Hyundai Motor Group said Friday that it has completed the establishment of a 50:50 joint venture with the US software developer of autonomous vehicles Aptiv. The headquarters of the joint venture will be set up in Boston, Massachusetts, and it will run research centers in both the US and Asia, the company said, adding that the company mission will be announced in the near future. In September last year, Hyundai Motor Group clinched a deal with Aptiv, formerly known as Delphi, for a $4 billion

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker by sales, said Friday it will halt its plants in Russia and Turkey, the latest in a series of suspensions due to the new coronavirus outbreak.   Hyundai's plant in Turkey is set to be closed Friday, and no date has been set for its resumption.   Meanwhile, the Hyundai plant in St. Petersburg is set to be shut down from Sunday through April 3, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a nationwide paid holiday next week in a move

Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday it will temporarily close another manufacturing plant in Brazil due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Samsung will suspend operation of its manufacturing plant in Campinas, Sao Paulo, in southeastern Brazil for two weeks from Monday to April 12. The world's largest smartphone maker already shut down its plant in Manaus, Amazonas, in northern Brazil due to the virus crisis. Samsung originally planned to close the Manaus factory from Tuesday to Sunday t

Sales at South Korean duty-free stores nearly halved in February from a month earlier, hit hard by the spread of the new coronavirus, industry data showed Friday. Combined sales of local duty-free shops came to 1.1 trillion won ($910 million) last month, down 45.5 percent from January, according to the data from the Korea Duty Free Shops Association. The number of visitors plunged 54 percent on-month to 1.75 million in February, with foreigners accounting for 40 percent of the total. Sales of

LG Electronics Inc., a major South Korean home appliance maker, said Friday it will temporarily shut down its washing machine plant in the United States for two weeks due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. LG said its plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, will suspend operations from Monday to April 12. The plant produces 100,000 washing machines a month and employs some 600 workers. Like other companies around the globe, LG has been dealing with production disruptions caused by the coronav

Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main air hub, went into "emergency mode" as the number of users nosedived amid the novel coronavirus outbreak that has spread around the world, the operator said Thursday.    The operator of the airport located in Incheon, 60 kilometers west of Seoul, said it is currently handling some 10,000 passengers per day, down from the normal 200,000 it processed before the pandemic paralyzed travel.    "An emergency situat

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun, who recently purchased treasury shares, has seen gains from the stock market recovery as well as the strengthening of his control. The market capitalization of Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis shares totaled 100 billion won ($81 million) as of Thursday, with 49.4 billion won for the automaker and 50.7 billion won for the parts unit. From Thursday last week to Wednesday, Chung bought shares of Hyundai Motor at a price between 68,435 won

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday that it has opened a 1 trillion-won ($812 million) credit line from two state lenders, a move that could help prevent a possible liquidity crunch caused by the spread of the new coronavirus. The country's largest power equipment maker has signed an agreement with Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) for the loans. Doosan Group, the parent of Doosan Heavy, is said to have offered its share holdings and

Hankook Tire, South Korea’s largest tire manufacturer by sales, said Thursday it will ramp up research in the original equipment tire sector. OE tires refer to tires that are equipped with new vehicles coming fresh off production lines. When designing new vehicle models, automakers go through several steps with tire manufacturers to choose or develop tires that best complement their own vehicle models. Hankook Tire is currently offering OE tires and replacement tires for around 320 car

The duty-free zone of Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 1 appears quiet Wednesday afternoon. As the industry was hit hard by the sharp drop in outbound travelers due to the spread of the new coronavirus, some of the airport’s duty-free shops couldn’t pay the rent in February. SM Duty Free pays about 3 billion won ($2.4 million) a month in rent and incurs interest of nearly 16 percent per year if it can’t pay on time. (Yonhap)

Hyundai Mobis said Thursday that its air bag that ejects out from the sunroof has been evaluated and shared by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The first kind to be invented in the world, according to the firm, the roof air bag is unfolded when a vehicle is flipped over during an accident. It can cover the entire roof in 0.08 seconds, aimed at protecting passengers inside the car from being ejected out of the sunroof. The new system involves 24 patented technologies and h

Hyundai Motor said Thursday its steady-selling sedan Avante’s latest model has received 10,058 preorders on the first day of reservation. The number is double the average monthly sales figure of Avante, as well as nine times more than the preorders for sixth-generation Avante, the company said.  It is also beats the past preorder record of the first-generation Avante -- which was named Elantra. The automaker said the number is meaningful amid the sharply falling consumer demand fo