Shares in Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction tumbled on Monday after the Korean shipbuilder said it decided to shut down three operations in Korea due to labor strife. Hanjin said in a statement that it had submitted reports to local governments that it would close one shipyard and two plants, saying ongoing strike activity since 2009 had hampered its production.Hanjin, the only unprofitable s

Kolon Industries Co., a Korean textile maker, plans to buy the shares in subsidiary Cambridge Kolon Co. on the market that it doesn’t own.Cambridge Kolon owners will get 782,580 shares of the merged company, or 0.16 share for every one of the existing securities, on May 16, Kolon said in a regulatory filing on Monday. (Bloomberg)

A nationwide milk shortage caused by the severest foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Korea’s history is affecting local confectionery and dairy industries, corporate sources said Sunday.Sources from Seoul Milk, Namyang Dairy Product Co. and the Korea Bakers Association said that as of December, the reserves of powdered skim milk stood at just 938 tons or a 77.3 percent drop from 4,137 tons reporte

The size of the so-called underground economy in Korea has been shrinking steadily since the early 1990s due to increased transparency of financial transactions, a report showed.According to the report by the Korea Institute of Public Finance, the size of the untaxed portion of the Korean economy was estimated at 17.1 percent of the gross domestic product in 2008, lower than 28.7 percent in the 19

BARCELONA, Spain (Yonhap News) ― Larger, faster and smarter smartphones and tablets are expected to steal the show this week at the wireless industry’s biggest trade show in Spain, signaling a new round of competition among vendors in the sector’s fastest growing and the most vibrant segments. Among the mobile devices and wireless technologies that will be on display by some 1,360 companies at thi

Korea’s household debt, a major economic risk factor, rose sharply last year, raising concerns about an increase in defaults, a private credit appraiser reported Sunday.At the end of December, financial institutions had 722.8 trillion won ($642 billion) in outstanding loans to the household sector, up 6.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Credit Bureau.Of the total, unsecured hou

Hyundai Motor Group’s overseas recruitment drive will begin Monday, the company announced Sunday. The group’s three main automotive businesses ― Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp. and Hyundai Mobis Co. ― will receive applications from overseas-educated individuals with master’s or Ph.D. degrees with two or more years of work experience.The selection process will be conducted from Feb. 14 through

The Bank of Korea may raise borrowing costs again as early as March to counter inflation pressures after unexpectedly leaving policy unchanged Friday. Governor Kim Choong-soo and his officials held the seven- day repurchase rate at 2.75 percent in a split decision, after economists had forecast a quarter-point increase. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc say the next move will be next