Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday that it has developed a self-controlling gearshift that measures traffic ahead and predicts optimized gearing, which it said is the first of its kind in the world. While existing smart drive modes work by learning the pattern of the drivers, the new information and communication technology-connected transmission system recognizes road situations and automatically changes gears for speed, the automaker said. The new technology will be adopted in upcoming models

Hanjin KAL, the holding firm of Hanjin Group which owns the country’s largest air carrier Korean Air, said Thursday that it has partnered with US startup accelerator Plug and Play for business diversification. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play has previously clinched development partnerships with global information and communications technology firms including Google, PayPal, Dropbox and Logitech. It has also worked with Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Singapore Airlines and Americ

South Korea’s tobacco giant KT&G is the most profitable company among the nation’s top 30 conglomerates, while Hanjin Group and Doosan Group, on the contrary, are in urgent need of improving their financial health, data showed Thursday. Local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute surveyed the net profit margin of the nation’s top 30 companies between 2008 and 2018 using data submitted to the Korea Fair Trade Commission. According to the survey, the total revenue generat

LG Household & Health Care Ltd., a major South Korean cosmetics company, said Thursday it has signed a deal to acquire Physiogel business rights for the Asian and North American regions from British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline Plc.  LG Household will finalize the deal with GlaxoSmithKline to take over the brand's business license for 192.3 billion won ($160 million) within the first half of 2020, the company said in a statement.  "The Physiogel brand has not advan

Preorders for Samsung Electronics Co.'s new flagship smartphone line started in South Korea on Thursday, with local mobile carriers rolling out various promotions to attract customers. Samsung said preorders for the Galaxy S20 smartphones will run through next Wednesday at online and offline stores in South Korea, with the official launch of new handsets scheduled for March 6. The Galaxy S20 series, which was unveiled last week in San Francisco, comes in three models -- the S20, S20 Plus an

Samsung C&T, the construction arm of Samsung Group, said Wednesday it clinched a 1.15 trillion won ($960 million) power plant deal in the United Arab Emirates. According to the company, it won the order placed by Emirates Water and Electricity Co. to build a 2,400-megawatt combined cycle power plant in Fujairah, some 300 kilometers northeast of Abu Dhabi. The envisioned power plant, under the project Fujairah F3, is expected to provide power for 380,000 homes in the region. Construction i

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo will step down as the chair of the board, as he was not reappointed as an internal director at the firm’s board meeting, the automaker said Wednesday. Chung, who had been the board chair since 1999, will retain the positions of Hyundai Motor’s unregistered executive and Hyundai Mobis’ registered director. He has been stepping away from day-to-day management and has not attended board meetings since 2018. Upon the departure of Chu

Retail and travel giant Lotte said Wednesday it has prepared a new environment friendly campaign for all of its affiliates, under a five-year plan to reduce food waste, minimize packaging and reuse resources. Lotte Holdings, and four of its business units -- food, retail, chemical/construction/manufacturing and tourism/service/finance -- will take part in the project. Lotte has three main action plans: establishing a plastic recycling system; expanding the use of environment friendly materia

South Korean tech giants including Samsung Electronics may face punitive measures by Iran in relation to business decisions that may have been influenced by US sanctions, reports and industry watchers said Tuesday. According to news reports, Iran could refuse entry of Samsung executives and staff and impose a partial ban on registration of Samsung phones with the Iranian mobile network, according to Mohammad Jafar Na’nakar, head of the legal department of the Iranian Ministry of Informati

The Korea Herald looks at advancements in chip manufacturing technologies, past and present

The number of Koreans in their 40s and 50s forced to retire from their jobs last year has reached close to 500,000, the largest figure in five years, data from Statistics Korea released by Rep. Choo Kyung-ho of the former Liberty Korea Party showed. The involuntary retirees include those whose workplaces have shut down, those who lost jobs in restructuring and those with seasonal or temporary jobs whose projects have ended. The report noted that the figure for involuntary retirement increase

The world’s first geostationary environment-monitoring satellite Chollian 2B made by South Korea has been successfully launched and reached outer space, the country’s aerospace research institute said Wednesday.  Chollian 2B was launched on the Ariane 5 ECA rocket from the space center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 7:18 a.m. as scheduled, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The satellite was detached from the Ariane rocket at 7:49 a.m. and made its first comm

Acquitted Lee Jae-woong welcomes verdict, but hurdles remain

Korean low-cost carrier Eastar Jet has decided to tighten its belt by reducing executive wages and workweek, amid the continued spread of the novel coronavirus that apparently originated in China, according to the company on Wednesday.  The firm said the executives agreed to reduce 30 percent of their salaries from March for four months. It also will accept applications from all employees -- barring flight and cabin crew -- for three-day and four-day workweeks. Employees can choose one o

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday its passenger car plants will fully recover next week following two weeks of partial operation as the spreading coronavirus disrupts the parts supply from China. Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said they plan to partially operate their passenger car plants by the end of this week as auto components from their suppliers in China are on their way to South Korea. "For now, (Hyundai and Kia) expect all passenger vehicle assembly lines