South Korea's imported car business lobby group said Thursday it has appointed an Audi Volkswagen Korea executive as its new chief to help their members gain a bigger share in the local passenger vehicle market. Till Scheer, group managing director of Audi Volkswagen Korea, will serve as the 15th chairman of the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) from March to February 2024, KAIDA said in a statement. "With a heavy sense of responsibility, I aspire to find solut

South Korea's top trade official met with foreign envoys to Seoul on Thursday and discussed ways of cooperation to ensure stable supplies of key materials amid global supply chain disruptions and simmering tensions surrounding Ukraine, the industry ministry said. The meeting took place in Seoul between Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and ambassadors and charge d'affaires of nine resource-rich nations -- Indonesia, Canada, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Brazil an

South Korea's producer prices made an upturn in January amid rising oil and other raw material prices, central bank data showed Thursday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 114.24 in January, up 0.9 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Producer prices remained flat in December after recording the 13th consecutive month of an increase. Compared with a year earlier, producer prices climbed 8.7 percent

ATKO planning, a Korea-based sustainable leather manufacturer, said Wednesday it has supplied recycled leather to Hyundai Transys’ future mobility seat concept, which was unveiled at the Lineapelle International Leather Fair held in Milan this month. The Lineapelle leather show is the largest of the kind and lays out the future vision of the automotive industry. This year, the trade show was held under the theme “Shift to Regenerative Mobility”, latching onto the global trend

GS Retail, the operator of Korea’s convenience store chain GS25, said Wednesday it will deploy chicken-frying robots, joining the recent race to automate food manufacturing. The company forged a partnership with Roboarte, the food tech startup behind Robert Chicken that uses robot arms to fry chicken. GS25 plans to use the startup’s robots to fry frozen chicken from its own brand Chicken 25. “The robot arms will automatically put the bucket full of frozen chicken in a frying

Retail giant could turn Seoul's financial district into new shopping mecca with Starfield, Josun brand, but faces rate hike risk, market downturn, experts say

Most companies with foreign investors in South Korea have not yet been able to make investment plans for this year, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey from the Federation of Korean Industries released Wednesday. Of the foreign-invested companies with more than 100 employees surveyed, 91.1 percent said they are yet to come up with an investment plan (64.4 percent) or do not plan to make an investment this year (26.7 percent). Only the remaining 8.9 percent of them hav

HDC Group’s construction arm HDC Hyundai Development Co. said Wednesday that it has appointed its vice president Jung Ik-hee as its new Chief Safety Officer. Jung, 56, joined the firm in 1995 and has overseen the management at major construction sites until 2019. In 2020, he served an executive role to manage the local projects and engineering technology with his experience on sites.  HDC Hyundai Development Co. said the new CSO was named as part of safety improvement efforts driven

LG Electronics said Wednesday it is exiting its solar panel business, citing unfavorable market conditions such as rising costs and price competition as the key factors. The Korean tech giant, following a board meeting on Tuesday, said it would stop producing solar panels and modules by June 30, with some 900 employees being relocated to other business divisions, including those of other LG companies. LG started its solar panel business back in 2010 with an emphasis on higher-efficiency prem

Companies fear another possible disruption in resource imports for batteries, chips, auto parts and petrochemical production -- backbone of the manufacturing-dependent economy

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has received a 1 trillion-won ($840 million) order to build four liquefied natural gas carriers for an African shipper. Under the deal, Samsung Heavy will deliver the four environment-friendly LNG ships to the unidentified shipper by September 2025, the company said in a statement. "We expect more LNG ship orders this year on increasing demand for LNG shipments and the International Maritime Organization's adoption of stricter environment regul

South Korea climbed to the first-tier group of countries last year in terms of how well its state policies for artificial intelligence are aligned with democratic values, a U.S. nongovernmental organization said Wednesday. In 2021, South Korea moved up by one notch to the first-tier group with 11 points, compared with 8.5 points the previous year, according to a report by the Center for AI and Digital Policy. Canada, Germany and Italy also stayed on the top tier last year. The Artificial Intelli

South Korean project management company HanmiGlobal said Wednesday it has acquired Tarr Whitman Group, a Seattle-based construction support consulting firm, to further expand its business to the US market. TWG will operate as a business unit within Otak, another US subsidiary of HanmiGlobal, and continue to focus on project control services for Otak and TWG clients. Following an integration of the two firms’ human resources, IT, and finance systems, HanmiGlobal hopes to serve a larger cl

LIG Nex1 showcased its robots, unmanned surface vehicles and surveillance drones at an international exhibit in the United Arab Emirates, hoping to expand exports to and technological cooperation in the Middle East. The South Korean defense company took part in the Unmanned Systems Exhibition and Conference, which was held in Abu Dhabi from Feb. 21 through 23. Among LIG Nex1’s products on display were nonpowered muscle assistance robots called LEXO, short for lower extremity skeleton, un

While keeping its overall look intact, the 2022 Renault Samsung SM6 has upgraded safety and convenience features such as LED matrix vision headlamps in all of its trims. Like most European cars, the SM6, which is sold as the Renault Talisman in Europe, has kept its unique design, despite having had minor facelifts over the six years since its launch. The LED matrix vision headlamps are smart headlamps that can automatically adjust their brightness using 18 LEDs on each side depending on traffi