Cash-strapped SsangYong Motor said Monday it is seeking to reengineer its business with a strengthened self-rescue plan to race back on the road to profitability. The South Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra and Mahindra -- which held two rounds of negotiations with the labor union last year -- has been focusing on normalizing its business. To improve its fiscal health, the automaker’s employees have agreed to reduce or stop 22 welfare benefits -- such as support for medical cost a

Hit by a severe drop in passengers and suspension of international routes over the coronavirus pandemic, South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet announced Sunday it will halt all services starting next week. The low-cost-carrier has decided to halt all flights to Jeju Island from Gimpo, Cheongju and Gunsan airports from Tuesday.  They were the only routes that the air carrier has been operating since March 9, after its Japanese flights were shut down following entry restrictions on Korean

Hyundai Mobis said Sunday it has developed a radar-using rear occupant alert system that will be adopted by new models of global carmakers. According to the auto parts making unit of Hyundai Motor Group, ROA is a system that was developed based on radar that uses sensors for autonomous driving. It is built on a software algorithm that detects even the most minute movements of a passenger in the rear seat. The radar of ROA can analyze a variety of bio-signals by penetrating a person’s bl

South Korean low-cost carrier Eastar Jet Co. will shut down all of its flights, company officials said Saturday, amid a travel slump triggered by the novel coronavirus pandemic.    Eastar Jet will halt operation of its domestic flights from Tuesday to April 25, according to the officials. The budget carrier already suspended all of its international flights earlier this month.    Eastar Jet will be the first South Korean airline to close all of its air services due to the

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean railway system and plant equipment maker, said Friday it has received an order worth 345 billion won ($274 million) in its home country. Hyundai Rotem will supply 120 subway train cars for a new local subway line named the Great Train Express-A (GTX-A) by 2024, the company said in a statement. The GTX-A line will stretch 83.1 kilometers from Unjeong Station in Paju to Dongtan Station in Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province, it said.  The subway trains will be bu

Decision comes amid unprecedented virus-hit difficulties including plant shutdown in US

South Korean full-service carrier Asiana Airlines said Thursday that it has sent a chartered flight to bring back some 80 South Koreans stuck in Iran, where the COVID-19 has been rapidly spreading.  Asiana Airlines said 80 Koreans left Tehran, Iran, to board a chartered flight in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The flight departed the Al Maktoum International Airport, some 37 kilometers from Dubai, on Thursday morning and arrived at Incheon International Airport at 4:35 p.m. Ministry data s

History and strategy behind lopsided shares in Korean car market

South Korean airlines are halting more flights as countries increasingly imposed entry restrictions in their fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus. Korean Air Lines Co., the country's biggest airline and national flag carrier, said Thursday it will begin reducing the number of flights to three per week from seven on the Incheon-Paris route. The latest move comes as European countries close their borders and restrict movement in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Korean Air

South Korean carmakers are likely to shut down their overseas plants as their global peers are planning to close factories as a precaution against the rapid spread of coronavirus. Local carmakers already suffered production losses due to a lack of parts when their suppliers in China suspended plants due to an extended Lunar New Year holiday amid fears of COVID-19 infections. The worsening outbreak is now dealing a further blow to the automobile industry as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co.

The South Korean government is injecting some 50 billion won ($40.4 million) to help the virus-hit transport industry here, by exempting fees and delaying payment to cover the businesses’ losses caused by a sharp drop in passengers.  In a meeting for crisis management measures presided by the country’s deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Wednesday, the government confirmed a set of measures to support industries hit by the coronavirus outbreak, primarily

Hyundai Motor on Wednesday unveiled its seventh-generation sedan Avante in Los Angeles at its world premiere event.  The event was livestreamed in major markets including South Korea, North America, China and Australia, without any audience, over the coronavirus concerns.  Avante has been the automaker’s steady-selling sedan over the past 30 years -- sold as Elantra in North America.  Hyundai Motor said the upgraded model has focused on showing an innovative, futuristic

South Korea's biggest auto parts maker and a key affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, on Wednesday approved the reappoinment of the group's heir apparent to the company's board to push forward his future mobility initiative. In a general meeting, Hyundai Mobis shareholders voted to accept the company's board's reappointment of Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun as executive director.   They also approved the board's decision to extend the term of former Opel Chief

  South Korea said Wednesday it will delay reclaiming traffic rights and allocated slots from airlines, while cutting landing fees and other charges, amid the escalating coronavirus impact on the aviation sector. Airlines have suspended most of their flights on international routes this month as people opt not to travel and more than 150 countries and territories impose entry restrictions on passengers from South Korea out of concerns over the spread of COVID-19. The transportation minis

The coronavirus outbreak threatens to batter South Korea's state airport, railway and highway operators due to tumbling demand for travel, data showed Wednesday. The spread of the respiratory disease, whose first confirmed case in South Korea was reported on Jan. 20, has halted almost all flights to and from South Korea, cut the number of train passengers in half and made a big dent in vehicle traffic on highways. According to the data that Rep. An Ho-young of the ruling Democratic Party rece