South Korea's top two smartphone makers -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- saw their presences in the North American smartphone market rise, helped by robust sales of their flagship line-up and product mix, data showed on Monday.Samsung Electronics, the world's top smartphone maker, held a 29 percent share in the region's smartphone market in the first quarter, up from the 27.7 percent the previous quarter, according to the data compiled by Strategy Analytics.LG Electronics ga

As neighboring Japan celebrates its recent success in winning a $22 billion bid to build a nuclear reactor in Turkey, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has pledged to build up Korea’s competitiveness in project financing for overseas deals. “Japan’s financial package was clearly favorable,” Kim Jun-dong, director of the ministry’s energy and resource office, told the local press. “Korea, on the other hand, is relatively weak in the field of project financing, especially when it comes to

Foreign investors expanded net sales of South Korean stocks this year on heightened geopolitical risks and concerns that a weaker yen would hurt Korean exporters, data showed Sunday.Foreign investors unloaded a net $5.16 billion worth of Seoul shares from January to April, according to data by the Korea Center for International Finance.Foreigners bought more shares than they sold in five Asian countries including Taiwan and India, purchasing a net $10.56 billion worth of stocks from seven Asian

South Korea may consider linking cigarette price hikes to the growth of consumer inflation in an effort to reduce the country’s smoking rate and secure more revenue, officials said Sunday.Tobacco prices have been frozen at the current 2,500 won ($2.28) per pack for more than eight years. The health ministry earlier said that average cigarette prices need to be raised to 7,000 won per pack to reduce the country’s smoking rate to what it called a desirable level.The finance ministry said it has re

Creditors of STX Group will likely pump at least 800 billion won ($730 million) into the troubled shipbuilding conglomerate in a bid to keep it afloat, a source said Sunday.On Friday, STX Group’s troubled holding company, STX Corp., and two affiliates requested main creditor Korea Development Bank supply liquidity in return for its voluntary debt-relief and restructuring efforts.“Creditor banks will discuss how much money will be extended to the group,” said the source. “The figure is expected t

Gov. Kim says central bank has already played its role

The market is eyeing whether the Bank of Korea will cut its key interest rate when it holds its monetary policy committee meeting Thursday, following Europe’s widely expected rate cut from 0.75 percent to a record low of 0.5 percent last week.Despite the government’s growing calls for a lower rate to further spur the economy, Korea’s central bank has kept its key base rate unchanged for the last six months, citing an expected recovery toward the latter half of this year.It seems BOK Governor Kim

The top 600 companies in South Korea are likely to increase investment by 13.9 percent this year from a year earlier despite the economic slowdown, a survey showed Sunday.South Korea's 600 biggest companies in terms of sales said their investments are expected to reach a combined 129.7 trillion won (US$118.4 billion) this year, compared with 113.9 trillion won the previous year, according to the poll made by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the country's top business lobby.The survey s