Major automakers in Korea effectively weathered negative factors involving the eurozone fiscal crisis last year, posting robust sales in the overseas market despite a slump at home.The five companies saw their collective sales climb by 5.65 percent in 2012 to about 8.19 million units, from 7.75 million units a year before.Hyundai Motor reported year-on-year sales growth of 8.6 percent. Its vehicle sales increased by about 350,000 units to around 4.4 million units ― an all-time high ― in 2012, fr

Apple’s California headquarters is unlikely to pick a new general manager for Apple Korea for the time being amid reports that Apple Japan’s operating executive will be leading Korean operations.Industry sources said that Colin Greene, senior director of operations of Apple Japan, will be overseeing Apple Korea, and that this proxy system may continue indefinitely. Greene reports to the Cupertino headquarters of Apple, as is the case for most operation executives at regional offices. Apple Korea

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japanese electronics giant Sony said it has stopped producing its PlayStation 2 consoles in Japan, fuelling online rumours a PlayStation 4 is in the pipeline.Since launching in 2000 the PlayStation 2, which has a Blu-ray player, has sold more than 150 million units worldwide, making it the best selling console of all time and was so popular it outsold the its replacement for the first three years.Shipments have been “completed” for the hardware of PS2, the Japanese website of Sony

South Korean home appliance giant LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it has started receiving orders for its 55-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs in South Korea.Consumers can apply for pre-orders of the 11 million won ($10,319) TV at 1,400 retail outlets across the country, with delivery set to start in early February, the company said in a press release.LG plans to expand sales to major markets in Asia, Europe and the U.S. in the first quarter, an LG spokesman said, without further e

A revised bill to put limits on operations of large supermarkets passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on Tuesday.Under the ruling named the Retail Industry Development Act, aimed at protecting mom and pop shops, chains of large supermarkets, including E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus, have to stop their operations between midnight and 10 a.m. The ruling also forces supermarket chains to close their shops two days a month, including a Sunday. It is the first bill to limit operations

South Korea’s trade surplus shrank from a year earlier as exports dropped at a faster rate than imports, the government said Tuesday.The country’s trade surplus came to about $2.03 billion last month, compared with a $4.48-billion surplus in November and $3.8-billion surplus in October.The drop comes mainly from a large reduction in exports, which dropped 5.5 percent from that of December 2011 to some $45.1 billion. Imports shrank 5.3 percent on-year to $43.07 billion, according to the Ministry

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in four months in December, indicating that the country is keeping inflationary pressure under control, a government report showed Monday.The country’s consumer prices index rose 1.4 percent in December from a year earlier, slowing from a 1.6 percent on-year gain in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea. From a month earlier, it grew 0.2 percent.The on-year figure marked the slowest growth sin

LG Electronics Inc., which has been ramping up efforts to regain a presence in the mobile phone industry, has sold more than 1 million Optimus Vu phones locally, the company said Monday.The Optimus Vu series, which includes the Optimus Vu and the Optimus Vu 2 phones, features a 4:3 display that was designed to enhance readability of Web pages and e-books.LG Electronics locally released the Optimus Vu in March and Optimus Vu 2 in September. The handset maker has rolled out the Optimus VU in Asia,