Standard Chartered First Bank Korea, the local unit of Britain-based Standard Chartered Group, said Friday it plans to close 27 branches in the nation by June to improve efficiency.Employees at the closed branches will be relocated to other operations, said the lender which operates 418 branches in the nation.“SC First Bank plans to cut 27 small branches in a bid to boost efficiency and diversify

Hanwha Group said Friday that it has established a research center in Silicon Valley in the United States to develop next-generation solar energy technologies including solar cells.The establishment of Hanwha Solar America marks the group’s latest efforts to enhance its solar energy business. Its affiliate Hanwha Chemical Co. acquired 49.9 percent of Shanghai-based solar-products maker Solarfun Po

Some automakers in Korea are considering reducing their output due to a shortage of parts from their Japanese suppliers hit by last week’s powerful earthquake, company officials said Friday.Renault Samsung Motors Co., Renault SA’s Korean unit, will cut production at its Korean factory to prepare for a potential parts supply disruption the company said. The carmaker will cut overtime work at its fa

Korea is seeking to tighten its construction code for smaller buildings in order to better protect them from massive earthquakes, the land and transportation ministry said Friday.The move comes as concerns are growing that Korea might not be immune from massive earthquakes like the one that hit Japan last week. Experts are also calling for the government to step up its efforts to better brace for

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday that it aims to post a record operating profit for the whole of 2011 by cementing its leadership in existing businesses.    "Competition among companies will intensify this year but we will try to extend revenue growth from last year and post a record-high operating profit," Choi Gee-sung, Samsung's chief executive officer, said in a stat

Korea’s imports from Japan have been plunging since the recent massive earthquake amid concerns that disruptions in supply of parts and materials from the neighboring country could hurt the economy here, customs data showed Thursday.Before the 9.0-magnitude quake struck Japan last Friday, Korea’s daily weekday imports from the country averaged $303.33 million for this month, according to the data

Korea’s small- and medium-sized exporters are struggling with delayed payments and a drop in orders from their Japanese partners whose operations were disrupted by the massive quake and tsunami last week.Government bodies and banks are stepping up financial assistance for such firms and trade agencies are operating emergency teams to closely monitor the extent of the damage. The powerful 9.0-magni

Foreign investment banks (IBs) see little short-term impact from last week’s earthquake in Japan on the Korean economy but they are concerned over its longer-term impact as the disaster could eventually hurt the nation’s exports by disrupting the parts supply from the neighboring country, a report showed Thursday.Recent reports on economic conditions at home and abroad by foreign banks including M

The number of people who used Korea’s budget carriers jumped over 30 percent on-year in the first two months of the year as more people chose cheap fares for domestic flights, the transportation ministry said Thursday.According to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, passengers who used budget carriers totaled 1.45 million in the January-February period, up 31 percent from a year

By Kim Ji-hyunLG Uplus on Thursday said it has developed an exclusive application, which allows users to read magazines in their original paper format on tablet PCs, to signal its entry into the digital magazine advertisement market. The application is accessible from both Android and Apple operating systems running on tablets such as Galaxy Tabs and iPads so that publishers won’t have to create s

Several South Korean firms are considering evacuating their Japan-based employees or moving their operations to southern Japan amid growing concern over a nuclear crisis there, company officials said Thursday.   Japan is battling to minimize nuclear disaster following Friday's devastating 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami that claimed thousands of lives and crippled a nuclear plant 240 kilometers no