Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Korea’s largest nonlife insurer, said Thursday it will slash its auto insurance premiums by an average of 2.2 percent.Samsung Fire’s move came after a recent decision by the local financial regulator and the industry to mark down car insurance premiums amid worries over the country’s rising inflation, which has increased the cost of living in the country. The No. 1 nonlife insurer’s proposed rate is 0.1 percentage point lower than it initially offered, accord

Samsung Techwin Co., a South Korean power systems, automation and defense contractor, said Thursday that it won a deal to supply industrial air compressors to a Saudi gas plant.The company, which did not go into details about price, said it will supply 17 compressors that can be used to make gas oil to the Shaybah natural gas liquids plant complex in the Middle Eastern country. The NGL plant is being built by Samsung Engineering Co. Both Samsung Techwin and Samsung E&G are part of the Samsung Gr

Korea’s e-commerce sales jumped to an all-time high in 2011 as cyber transactions grew sharply between businesses, a government report showed Thursday.Online sales totaled about 999 trillion won ($884.9 billion) last year, up 21.2 percent from the 824 trillion won tallied in the previous year, according to the report by Statistics Korea.Business-to-business transactions, which accounted for more than 90 percent of all cyber sales, came to 912.56 trillion won, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier.

The nation’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it will launch a large-scale investigation into unfair business practices at major department stores and supermarket chains next month. The Fair Trade Commission also plans to revise a leniency program so that when two companies are caught price-fixing only the first declarer has its fines cut.“We will look into how commission cuts, agreed in September, are carried out at 11 major retailers and whether there are any illegal business activities

South Korea will invest about 16 trillion won ($14.2 billion) in scientific research and development (R&D) efforts this year, a presidential body said Wednesday.The amount is up 7.6 percent from the 14.89 trillion won set aside for the same purpose last year, according to the National Science and Te

A recent research said Wednesday that Korean TV makers sold more units of flat-screen televisions sets compared to its Japanese rivals for the first time globally.According to market research firm DisplaySearch, Korea recorded 34 percent in market share in terms of total TV units sold globally in the final quarter of last year, while Japan’s market share reached 31 percent.The Korean TV makers ― Samsung and LG Electronics ― have been beating its Japanese rivals in global quarterly sales volume o

SK Group said on Wednesday it will take part in a project to build a major petrochemical complex in China with global petrochemical companies such as China’s Sinopec and British Petroleum.SK said it signed a preliminary deal with Sinopec and BP on Wednesday to build production facilities for butanediol, acetic acid and ammonia in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing by as early as 2014.The 1.2-trillion-won complex will break ground as early as July or August, and is expected to reap more t

Auto parts makers and shipping shares rose on expectations their revenue will rise with the start of Korea-U.S. FTA in a market that barely moved on Wednesday.The KOSPI inched up 0.22 percent to close at 2028.65, with gains led by auto parts maker Mando Corp., Hyundai Mobis Co., each rising 1.85 percent to 165,500 won and 1.62 percent to 281,500 won.The pact, which will take effect on March 15, calls for the elimination of 2.5 percent to 10 percent duties on auto parts. “The 2.5 percent tax on a

Seoul plans to renegotiate ISD clause with Washington via service and investment committeeThe Korea-U.S. free trade agreement will take effect on March 15, nearly six years after negotiations began in June 2006, making Korea the only nation to have FTAs with both the U.S. and the European Union.Free trade with the world’s largest economy, which accounts for 23 percent of the global output, is expected to upgrade Korea’s status as a trade partner and most immediately benefit the country’s auto, a

HSBC has predicted that Korea would overtake the U.K. in trade ranking within 15 years by seeing a cumulative growth of 142 percent in trade volume by 2026.The projection for Korea by HSBC Global Connections far surpasses the figure for the world’s trade volume. It forecasts that the world’s trade will expand 86 percent by 2026.“Countries that will see increases in their share of world trade to 2026 include South Korea, which will replace the U.K. as the sixth-largest trading nation due to trade

Korea’s household credit surpassed the 900 trillion won ($801 billion) mark in the final quarter of last year, as household loans extended by non-bank institutions increased, the central bank said Wednesday.Household credit totaled a record 912.9 trillion won as of the end of December, up 22.3 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. Compared with one year earlier, the fourth-quarter household credit rose 7.8 percent, with the growth rate decreasing from the two pr