SK Innovation, the nation’s top oil refiner, has reaffirmed its goals toward becoming a technology-driven global energy company by pledging 290 trillion won ($260 billion) in sales and 14 trillion won ($12 billion) in operating profits by 2020. The company’s new growth vision was stressed by SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won in his congratulatory remarks to 2,700 employees and executives participating in a ceremony held in Daejeon on Friday.  “SK Innovation, which started as the nation’s first oil

Ford Motor Co.’s board discussed a succession plan for chief executive officer Alan Mulally at its monthly meeting on Friday, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The board is preparing to promote Mark Fields to chief operating officer from president of the Americas as part of a plan to have him eventually succeed Mulally, said the person, who asked not to be named revealing board deliberations. Such a move would make clear the succession plan at the second-largest U.S. automaker

Toyota Motor Corp. first learned in 2008 about a defect in power-window switches that last week prompted it to recall 7.43 million vehicles worldwide for fire hazards, according to documents filed with U.S. regulators. Toyota, based in Toyota City, Japan, received a report in September 2008 from the U.S. about “an unusual smell” from the power-window master switch and “thermal damage” to the switch, the company said in a report posted Friday on the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administra

Honda Motor Co. president Takanobu Ito forecast growth over the next two to three years will be led by sales of its range of new Fit vehicles as Japan’s third- biggest automaker expands in emerging markets. “We will see the good uplifting effect from the Fit series,” Ito, 59, said Friday in an interview at his Tokyo office, where Honda’s spaceman-like Asimo robot greets visitors by name. “So around the world, I believe 2013, 2014, 2015 will be years of growth.” Ito’s focus on the Fit, a vehicle

Import brands set to fuel competition in compact car marketHyundai Motor’s flagship compact Avante has never lost its top-seller position in the nation’s small family car segment in the past 12 years.The Avante sold 81,256 units in the first nine months of this year, making up more than 60 percent of compact car sales here. However, the game seems to be changing in the second half of the year, as other carmakers are revving up the competition with their new models. For now, industry watchers say

Apple Inc. is set to reveal a smaller, cheaper version of the iPad at an event on Oct. 23, according to several reports published Friday.The reports from Bloomberg News, Reuters and the AllThingsD blog are based on unnamed sources with ``familiar with the plans.''Apple Inc. hasn't said anything about a smaller tablet, a concept company founder Steve Jobs derided two years ago. But company watchers

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee met Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai in Hanoi on Friday to discuss ways to expand the Korean company’s investment in that country, company sources said.Lee has also called in all his confidantes — Lee Jay-yong, his son and president of Samsung Electronics; Shin Jong-kyun, the company’s mobile chief; and Choi Gee-sung, head of Samsung Group’s corporate strategy office — for the three-day trip. The executive meeting will focus on Samsung’s