Kumho Tire Co. reached a tentative wage deal with its union early Tuesday after overnight marathon negotiations, the company said.Under the agreement, South Korea's second-biggest tire maker will give workers 2.5 million won (US$2,200) and 50 percent of their monthly wages as lump-sum incentive payments.The labor union will vote on the tentative agreement on Thursday.The tentative deal came more t

The average salary for workers in the nation’s 30 major conglomerates has come to 63 million won ($56,300) per year, according to a corporate information tracker.Hyundai Motor Group eclipsed the rest with a yearly wage payment of 84 million won last year, data gathered by chaebul.com showed. The nation’s No. 2 business group has 10 listed subsidiaries including Hyundai Mobis and Kia Motors.Hyundai Heavy Industries ranked second with 76.4 million won, followed by Samsung Group with 74.8 million w

South Korean stocks finished almost unchanged on Monday as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of Spain’s decision on a bailout plan proposed by the European Union, analysts said. The local currency lost ground against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 1.07 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 2,003.44. Trading volume was moderate at 476.8 million shares worth 4.19 trillion won ($3.75 billion), but decliners outstripped gainers 458 to 364. “It’s most likely

Pantech on Monday unveiled its new 5.3-inch flagship smartphone named Vega R3, calling for a face-to-face battle with Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5.With the new quad-core handset slated to be rolling out in the market Tuesday, the company said it will release it through all three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus. The model runs on the fourth-generation Long Term Evolution network and a 3G version is not available, according to its officials.Claiming that its premium models will use the

South Korea’s labor productivity fell from a year earlier in the second quarter as the global economic downturn caused a drop in the country’s exports, the government said Monday.The labor productivity index for all industries in the April-June period came to 105.4, down 1.2 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.The figure, however, marks a slower drop of labor productivity from the first quarter when the index fell 2.3 percent on-year.Labor produ

South Korea’s consumer spending grew at a slower pace than the country’s economic growth for the past three years, data showed Monday, adding to concerns that domestic demand may further cool.The annual growth of Korea’s consumer spending ran lower than that of the economic growth between the third quarter of 2009 and the second quarter of this year, marking the longest streak of such a trend, according to data by the central bank and the Samsung Economic Research Institute.The average growth ra

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― SK Communications Co., South Korea’s third-largest Internet portal service provider, is in an early stage of merger talks with the developer of South Korea’s most prominent social network service, sources said Monday.SK Communications, which operates Cyworld, once South Korea’s most prominent social networking service, is seeking to merge with Kakao Corp. that operates a namesake mobile messenger service, several financial sources in Hong Kong confirmed.The move could p

STX Group, a South Korean shipping and shipbuilding conglomerate, said Monday that it has chosen Orix Corp. of Japan as a preferred bidder for a major stake in its energy unit.STX Group has been seeking to sell units or list them on the local stock market as part of efforts to secure cash, thus putting its balance sheet in good shape.The group plans to sell a 39.9 percent stake in its energy affiliate STX Energy Co. Other STX affiliates such as STX Corp. hold a combined 90.99 percent share of ST

South Korea is expected to pay around 21 trillion won ($18.7 billion) in interest on its debt this year amid increased borrowing by the government to tide over the global economic crisis, data showed Monday.According to the data provided by the finance ministry to the National Assembly, interest payment on the nation’s debt will amount to some 21.5 trillion won this year, compared with last year’s 18.9 trillion won.Interest payment on the debt already reached 9.6 trillion won in the first seven

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s top mobile carrier, said Monday it has purchased a major stake in a Chinese medical equipment maker as part of its efforts to enter the world’s No. 2 economy.Under the deal with Xian Tianlong Science and Technology Co., SK Telecom acquired a 49 percent stake in the Chinese healthcare venture, the company said in a statement. The financial terms were undisclosed.“SK Telecom plans to provide its management expertise to Tianlong and cooperate on research and developmen

LG Electronics said Monday it filed for an injunction against Samsung Electronics at a Seoul court involving its rival’s advertisement on the two companies’ high-capacity refrigerators.LG said that Samsung should immediately stop airing its advertisements posted on YouTube because they contain unverifiable information that is ruining the reputation of its own refrigerators as well as its corporate image.According to LG, Samsung posted a video ad on Aug. 22 that compares the capacity of the two f

Korea Development Bank on Monday introduced a special loan product with an average annual interest of 3.95 percent for small and medium-sized companies, a year after creating a sensation with a money market deposit account that offers a generous interest of 3.5 percent.KDB chairman Kang Man-soo told reporters that the low-interest loans for small firms worth a total of 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) comes in celebration of Korea’s recent credit rating upgrade by Moody’s and Fitch to a level above

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., the owner of Ssangyong Motor Co., is concerned about the recent parliamentary debate on Ssangyong’s mass layoff in 2009, but has no immediate plans to reinstate fired workers, a local business organization said Monday.Faced with a severe liquidity crunch, Ssangyong Motor, the smallest carmaker in South Korea that specializes in sport utility vehicles, was forced to lay off 2,600 workers, or 37 percent of its workforce, in August 2009.“If the restructuring in August 2009