The Korea Herald

Park opting against radical chaebol reform

IndustryDec 23, 2012

President-elect’s economic policies put emphasis on ensuring fair market competition
Kakao Talk use triples in 5 months

TechnologyDec 23, 2012

Kakao, the developer of mobile messenger app “Kakao Talk,” said Sunday that its now 70 million users spend almost triple the time using the app on average as they did five months ago. The average weekly use of Kakao Talk reached 302 minutes, nearly triple the 107 minutes of the first week of July. In other words, Kakao Talk users run the app for about 43 minutes every day on average. The phenomenon indicates that existing Kakao Talk users rely heavily on the app to send mobile messages, Kakao sa
KOGAS mulls expansion of stake in Mozambique field

Dec 23, 2012

The state-run Korea Gas Corp. said on Friday it is seeking to expand its shareholdings in a gas field in Mozambique to 30 percent from the current 10 percent. KOGAS CEO Choo Kang-soo told reporters on Friday that price will be a key factor for additional investment decisions in the Mozambique gas field. KOGAS found 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at one of four wells in an offshore block in northern Mozambique waters in October this year. KOGAS is also running a gas pipeline and operating
Hyundai Heavy Industries wins 5 LNG ship orders

IndustryDec 23, 2012

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, which includes the world’s largest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., said Sunday that it has won orders to build five liquefied natural gas carriers for $1.05 billion.Hyundai Heavy Industries, the group’s flagship company, won a bid from a state-run energy company in Brunei on Friday to build a 155,000-cubic-meter LNG ship, the group said.Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., a unit of the shipbuilding conglomerate, also received orders on Thursday to build
Global sales of LTE smartphones to triple

Dec 23, 2012

Global sales of long-term evolution smartphones will likely triple next year, driven by South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. and its U.S. rival Apple Inc., a report showed Sunday. The report by research firm Strategy Analytics predicted that about 275 million units of LTE smartphones will be sold worldwide next year, which will be three times larger than this year’s annual sales estimate of 90.9 million units.The report expected that the U.S., Britain, Japan, China and South Korea wi
Samsung’s share in mobile memory chips tops 57%

Dec 23, 2012

South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. saw its market share in the global mobile memory industry exceed 57 percent during the third quarter thanks to growing demand for mobile devices, a market researcher said Sunday.Samsung Electronics sold about 2.1 billion units of mobile dynamic random access memories up until the third quarter of this year, according to a report by market researcher IHS iSuppli. Its global market share stood at 57.05 percent at the end of the third quarter.The num
Shares likely to move in tight range this week

Dec 23, 2012

South Korea’s stock market is expected to remain in a tight range this week with most major stock markets closed for yearend holidays, analysts said.They said the U.S. fiscal cliff issue will continue to weigh down on the local market but that a drop, if any, will not be too severe as the inflow of foreign investment continues to grow.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 1,980.42 last week, down 0.7 percent from a week earlier, as U.S. lawmakers and President Barack Obama fa
Eximbank hosts seminar on investment in Myanmar

Dec 23, 2012

The Export-Import Bank of Korea held a seminar on investment opportunities in Myanmar last week to provide information and insights to interested Korean businesses.About 150 officials from some 60 Korean companies and financial firms attended the seminar, jointly hosted with British law firm Ashurst, in which a former Myanmar official, Ashurst lawyers specializing in Myanmar and Eximbank officials in charge of economic development cooperation funds to Burma spoke about the country’s foreign inve
Yongsan development on verge of collapse

Dec 23, 2012

The Yongsan International Business District Project, a large-scaled development plan in central Seoul, is on the brink of collapse, mainly due to a lack of funds and conflict among shareholders, industry sources said on Sunday.As of Dec. 21, the remaining funds of the Dream Hub PFV consortium, which leads the 31 trillion won ($29 billion) development project, amount to 6.5 billion won and funds are expected to run out before the year-end unless additional money is secured, the sources said. The
Park to bring out underground economy

Dec 23, 2012

Tax authorities’ greater access to financial transaction info is key to uncovering underground economy
Toyota rated worst in U.S. insurance group’s tests

TransportDec 23, 2012

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Camry, the best-selling mid-size car in the U.S., and the Prius V hybrid earned the lowest ratings in a new crash test simulating a severe front-end collision, an insurance group found. The two Toyotas received the only “poor” scores on an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety test intended to evaluate a crash in which the front corner of a vehicle collides with another car, a tree or a pole. It is more stringent than the U.S. government’s test, which simulates a collision
Audi, BMW see ‘Gangnam Style’ sales boost in Korea

TransportDec 23, 2012

Kim Ju-hee says the Korean cars favored by her parents and winning customers around the world aren’t bad, just rather dull. So as she looks for a new set of wheels, she’s skipping the Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. dealerships near her Seoul home to scout Audi AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG showrooms in the city’s ritzy Gangnam district. “Audis are just better looking and offer something unique,” said the 27-year-old accountant, who has her eye on an Audi A6. “South Korean cars may h
Local CEOs credited with import car boom

TransportDec 23, 2012

Best-selling import cars of the year
KDB holds jazz concert by vocalist Nah

Dec 23, 2012

The state-run KDB Financial Group held a concert for jazz vocalist Nah Youn-sun for its third anniversary on Sunday.The financial group invited a group of its customers to the event held at its headquarters in Yeouido to share the anniversary celebration.KDB officials said the event was also part of the banking group’s efforts to expand its role to include cultural support. The group plans to use the funds collected through the concert to support children entrusted from the international organiz
China holds test run on world’s longest high-speed rail line

IndustryDec 23, 2012

China tested its 2,298-kilometer (1,428-mile) high-speed rail line, the longest in the world, as it prepares to start passenger service on Dec. 26. Bullet-trains on the line from Beijing to southern Chinese city of Guangzhou can run at an average speed of 300 kilometers per hour, the official Xinhua news agency said. It will shorten the rail travel time from the capital to the Pearl River Delta to about eight hours from the previous 24 hours. China is accelerating railway investment again after