South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday on the back of robust gains by tech firms and steelmakers.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 0.23 percent to 2,128.81 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Market behemoth Samsung Electronics added 0.67 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix moved up 0.61 percent. LG Electronics advanced 0.43 percent.Steelmakers also continued to gain ground, with POSCO rising 0.37 percent and Korea Zinc adding 2.2 percent. Hyundai Steel moved up 0.18

WASHINGTON -- The US Commerce Department decided Tuesday to impose antidumping tariffs up to nearly 25 percent on oil country tubular goods imported from South Korean steelmakers.The department announced that it will levy 24.92 percent tariffs on OCTG imports from Nexteel, 2.76 percent on SeAH Steel and 13.84 percent on Hyundai Steel and other South Korean steelmakers. The final rates to be be applied to product are higher than the preliminary tariffs determined in October and are roughly on par

South Korean companies are increasingly being subject to import restrictions, the Korea International Trade Association said Tuesday.Import control measures include antidumping duties, countervailing duties, safeguards and double imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties.Compared to the end of last year, the number of restriction cases increased by three, meaning Korea faced an average of one new case each month this year.KITA advised firms to thoroughly monitor the situations and to a

Despite optimism growing over South Korea’s exports outlook, buoyed by strong outbound shipments of auto and chip products, domestic demand continued to remain low this month, further weakening business confidence among local manufacturers, data and reports showed Tuesday.According to data compiled by the Korea Customs Service, total outbound shipments reached $11.2 billion in the first 10 days of April, a 6.1 percent increase from a year ago.Led by strong overseas sales of semiconductors

A majority of South Korean manufacturing companies expect their business conditions to improve in the second quarter of the year amid signs of a recovery in exports, a poll showed Tuesday.According to the survey of 645 manufacturers conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, the manufacturing sector business survey index stood at 100 for the April-June period, coming in lockstep with the median figure of 100.A BSI reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists.T

The money supply in South Korea jumped 5.9 percent in February from a year earlier, the central bank said Tuesday.The nation's "M2" totaled 2,420.2 trillion won ($2.1 trillion) in February, compared with 2,285.3 trillion won a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.Month-on-month, the money supply gained 0.3 percent, the statement said.M2 is a measure of the money supply counting the currency in circulation, including bank debentures and deposits with a maturity of less th

South Korea has been subjected to 187 cases of import restrictions or related investigations by foreign authorities as of end of last month, the heaviest penalty imposed by India, a local trade group said Tuesday.The restrictive measures come from 30 countries in the form of anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, safeguards or a combination of them.Anti-dumping probes and regulations accounted for in 138 of 187 cases, with 41 safeguards and seven cases where the punitive measures were combi

South Korea's economy is showing some signs of a recovery led by a steady rise in exports, investment and an upturn in private consumption, a government report said Tuesday."As exports-led momentum boosted production and investment and private consumption bottomed out in recent months, the South Korean economy seems to present some signs of a turnaround," the finance ministry said in its monthly economy assessment report called the "Green Book."The report is based on the late

South Korea's exports increased 6.1 percent in the first 10 days of April from a year earlier on the back of brisk overseas sales of semiconductors and vehicles, customs data showed Tuesday.Total outbound shipments reached $11.2 billion during the cited period, up from $10.5 billion tallied over the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service.The increase was led by a 51.8 percent on-year gain in exports of semiconductors and a 23.2 percent surge in passeng

South Korea's national tax revenue continued to rise in the first two months of the year on increased value added taxes and income taxes, the finance ministry said Tuesday.The government collected a total of 46.2 trillion won ($40.4 billion) in taxes in the January-February period, up 3.6 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.It marked 19.1 percent of the tax revenue of 235.1 trillion won earmarked for 2017, up 0.8 percentage point higher than the sa

South Korean businesses’ profits made from intermediate trade surged significantly last year. The total net profit reached $9.46 billion, up 18.9 percent from the previous year.Net profits from intermediate trade have been increasing since several years ago, as businesses started investing heavily overseas, and had reached a record high of $14.6 billion in 2014.Popular goods for intermediate trade are smartphones, computers, television and other high value-added electronics. By 2012, overs

South Korea’s imports of US goods have increased sharply this year in an apparent reflection of Seoul’s efforts to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries ahead of the release of the US Treasury Department’s latest currency report this week. According to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the country’s imports from the US rose 18.8 percent from a year earlier to $12.09 billion during the first quarter of the year. As a result, Korea saw its

The gap in real income and purchasing power by the higher income class and the lower income one in South Korea has further expanded due largely to a sharp growth gap in their nominal income, a report showed Monday.According to the report by the state-run Korea Development Institute, the real income of those in the lowest income bracket, or the first quintile, has grown an average 1.2 percent from 2003 to 2016, while the richest people saw their real income gain 1.9 percent on average over the sa

South Korea's net exports of goods through merchanting trade jumped 18.9 percent in 2016 from a year earlier due to brisk sales of smartphones, central bank data showed Monday.The country's net exports of goods under a merchanting arrangement came to $9.46 billion in 2016, up $1.5 billion, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea.The increase is mostly driven by brisk sales of South Korea's smartphones built in overseas plants.Profits from smartphone sales pushed up South Korea's net expo

South Korea’s industrial output and consumption shrank in September, government data showed Monday, reflecting the nation’s dire economics situation. The impact from sluggish exports, the Galaxy Note 7 recall, Hyundai Motor strike and Hanjin Shipping bankruptcy were felt on the indexes of industrial output and consumption in September, according to data released by Statistics Korea. The index of all industry production in September decreased by 0.8 percent from the previous month