South Korea’s LG Chem announced Monday it will invest some 2.61 trillion won to expand manufacturing facilities to raise the capacities of the Naphtha Cracking Center and high value metallocene polyolefin by 800,000 tons each at its Yeosu plant in South Jeolla Province. The production will begin by the second half of 2021.It will also invest some 200 billion won to create an industrial complex to manufacture future materials in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province. Through the latest invest

The Moon Jae-in administration’s expansionary fiscal policy will probably prove unsustainable in a couple of years due to a possible decline in tax revenue that might stem partly from reduced corporate profits, economists say.On the back of a continuous rise in tax revenue, President Moon’s government has been increasing fiscal spending at a steep pace to expand welfare and employment programs. It is also under growing criticism for squandering taxpayer money to cope with the uninten

The Kospi, a benchmark index representing South Korea’s top-tier market, experienced the most bearish first half this year in five years, data showed Monday.From January to June, the Kospi fell 5.7 percent to 2,326.13, the sharpest since a 6.7 percent drop in the first half of 2013, according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange. Analysts cited a market impact from US-China trade war threats and strengthening US dollar that are associated with sluggish earnings of local manufacturers in

DAR ES SALAAM -- South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon held talks with his Tanzanian counterpart and agreed to work together to further deepen economic cooperation between the two countries, officials said.Lee arrived in Tanzania on Saturday for a three-day visit in the second stop of his weeklong trip to the region that already took him to Kenya and will also include a visit to Oman later this week. Bolstering economic and business ties with the countries is a key purpose of the trip. In Sund

The average hourly payment for South Korea's listed firms was more than three times higher than the country's minimum level, market data showed Sunday.A total of 1,932 firms listed on the main KOSPI and tech-laden KOSDAQ markets were presumed to have paid an average of 22,472 won ($19.79) per hour last year to their 1.56 million employees, according to the data from Chaebol.com, a research firm specialized in large businesses.In 2017, South Korea set the minimum hourly wage at 6,470 won. The amo

S&P DJI executive says ‘earnings screening’ can ensure quality of small-cap indexes

South Korean delegates will head to Thailand to participate in the latest round of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a proposed mega trade deal involving Asian nations, Seoul's trade ministry said Sunday. The RCEP is in essence a massive regional trade deal between 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the six countries with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements -- South Korea, China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.Kim Jung-il, Se

South Korea's 30 richest stockholders have lost more than 10 trillion won ($8.81 billion) combined in the value of their shares this year amid a bearish equities market, data showed Sunday.As of last Wednesday, the aggregated value of shares owned by the top 30 stockholders stood at 77.69 trillion won, down 11.84 percent from the end of last year, according to the local financial information provider FnGuide Inc.The benchmark KOSPI has lost 7.19 percent this year, dropping to 2,290.11. On the fi

North Korea’s annual real gross domestic product in 2017 retreated 3.5 percent on-year, marking the sharpest fall in over 20 years, as sanctions on the North appear to have taken a toll on its exports, data showed Friday. This comes in contrast to the secluded state’s 3.9 percent on-year economic growth in 2016, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea. The degree of decline is the steepest since 1997, when the real GDP decreased by 6.5 percent on-year.The central bank cited a

SEOGWIPO, Jeju -- The nature of the ongoing trade war between the US and China is in Washington’s ambition to open Beijing’s financial market, a Korean expert on China’s economy said Friday.China’s strengths in the manufacturing sector are too much even for the US, but it has its weakness in financial industry and Trump is targeting that, according to Jeon Byung-seo, head of Institute for China Economy and Finance.“The fundamental motive of the bilateral trade war i

Korea's minimum wage hike is feared to deal a harsh blow to jobs for elderly people as many of them are subject to the pay regulation, sources said Friday.The government jacked up the minimum wage by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won ($6.62) per hour on Jan. 1 this year, the biggest hike in nearly two decades. Next year's minimum wage has been set at 8,350 won, up 10.9 percent from this year.  According to Statistics Korea, nearly 205,000 Koreans aged 55 or older were employed by the business facil

A South Korean company’s proclaimed discovery of the armored Russian cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi that was scuttled off the sea near the Korean islet Ulleungdo in 1905 has disrupted local stock market.The stock price of Jeil Steel Mfg, a rolling steel product maker listed on the second-tier Kosdaq, fluctuated throughout this week on the rumored connection with Shinil Group, the Korean company that claimed to have found the sunken vessel.  Jeil Steel Mfg sank 20.5 percent Thursday in closin

South Korea and Canada have agreed to jointly deal with the United States' move to levy tariffs on foreign autos and put on a united front against the rising protectionism in global trade, Seoul's trade ministry said Thursday. South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong met with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland in Ottawa to discuss the latest trade issues and explore ways to expand bilateral economic cooperation. The two nations have mulled ways to defend their auto industries as the D

President Moon Jae-in’s recent outreach to the business community seems to have so far fallen short of gaining full confidence and cooperation from corporate officials.The local corporate circle is cautiously watching whether he will follow through with his encouraging signals to shift to business-friendly policies despite objections from civic and labor groups as well as many ruling party lawmakers. In a move that was seen as heralding changes in his stance to keep a distance from the cou

South Korea’s Securities and Futures Commission on Wednesday approved SK Holdings’ 51.5 billion-won ($45.6 million) deal plan, putting the matter up for final regulatory decision by the top regulator, the Financial Services Commission. SK Holdings’ deal is designed to sell off its controlling stake of brokerage house SK Securities to local private equity firm J&W Partners. As the SFC approved the eligibility of J&W Partners as the securities firm’s major sharehold