Samsung Electronics Co. will likely widen its lead over closest rival Apple Inc. in the smartphone market share largely thanks to its diverse range of products, a report showed Tuesday.The South Korean tech leader is expected to hold a 37 percent share of the global smartphone market in 2013, selling 284 million units globally, Korea Investment & Securities Co. predicted in the report.It was comparable to the iPhone maker's 20.4 percent, equivalent to 157 million units.  The difference between t

South Korea's current account surplus widened in September from the previous month as exports expanded at a faster rate than imports weathering the local currency's gain, the central bank said Tuesday.The current account surplus reached US$6.07 billion in September, up from a revised $2.5 billion in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.The September figure was the largest monthly surplus since a record high of

GS Engineering and Construction said Monday that a Korean consortium with SK Engineering and Construction has won a $1 billion contract to build a large-scale oil plant in Thailand.The 60-40 consortium established by the two leading Korean builders had participated in the project bidding announced by Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, an affiliate of the state-run Petroleum Authority of Thailand. The two companies plan to cooperate to build an oil-refining plant and related facilitie

Corporate taxes paid by the top 1 percent of South Korean businesses made up nearly 90 percent of the total, data showed Monday, suggesting that a small number of large conglomerates are dominating markets.According to the data provided by the National Tax Service, the country’s top 1 percent out of 460,614 corporations paid a combined 32.7 trillion won ($29.8 billion) in corporate taxes last year.The amount, from which tax exemptions and reductions were subtracted, accounted for 86.1 percent of

South Korean manufacturers’ business confidence for November dipped to a three-month low as the growth outlook remained bleak amid the global economic downturn, the central bank said Monday.The index of manufacturers’ outlook on business conditions came in at 70 for November, down from 72 tallied for October, according to a monthly survey by the Bank of Korea. The index measures manufacturers’ expectations for the coming month.The November index marked the lowest reading since the index for Augu

South Korean stocks closed unchanged Monday as protracted uncertainties over global growth weighed down investor sentiment despite forecast-beating U.S. growth data, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar. After bobbing in and out of positive territory, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index finished at 1,891.52, up 0.09 points from Friday’s close. Trading volume was moderate at 365.6 million shares worth 4.11 trillion won ($3.74 billion) with losers outpacing ga

Russia was the second-largest destination for Korean cars this year, while exports to Germany and the U.K. showed moderate growth with the market slowing in Italy and Spain, according to a report.The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association said Monday that 154,732 Korean-made cars were exported to Russia during the nine months this year, next to 509,330 vehicles sold in the U.S. During the same period back in 2002, Korean carmakers sold only 4,632 cars in Russia. In 2009, they saw a 75 percen