Joining South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s quest to pioneer new technologies and industries in the post-COVID-19 era, Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Chung Euisun and Naver CEO Han Seong-sook on Tuesday presented their company visions via a teleconference broadcast at Cheong Wa Dae. Chung and Han, who lead the country’s biggest automaker and internet portal operator, respectively, expressed support for the government’s five-year “New Deal” policy drive, which

South Korean food maker Nongshim said Monday its US sales totaled about $164 million in the first half of this year, the firm’s highest-ever figure in the country, led by sales of Shin Ramyun. The company attributed the notable sales in the US to the brand power of Shin Ramyun, its flagship noodle brand. The company also said the popularity was helped by increased demand for instant food products amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The South Korean company’s instant noodle products are g

BAT Korea said Monday that it has appointed Kim Eun-ji as its new country manager. She is the first female chief in the South Korean tobacco industry. Kim, who served as the company’s brand director in Indonesia, joined the company in 2004 and has 16 years of experience in the tobacco industry, BAT Korea said. As the new CEO, she will be responsible for leading the domestic trade business of BAT Korea, aligned with the group strategy, the company said. The company said Kim will help

For public health, authorities around the world should adopt differentiated regulations for heated tobacco products and conventional cigarettes, as the two are too different to be grouped together, Philip Morris International Chief Executive Officer Andre Calantzopoulos said Monday. Speaking at a webinar media brief, Calantzopoulos hailed the recent decision of US Food and Drug Administration to authorize marketing of its heated tobacco product IQOS as a ”historic“ and ”impo

Coupang, an e-commerce giant here, said Thursday it will deploy 2,400 safety inspectors in all of its Rocket Delivery Centers, to watch over the disinfection processes to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Coupang has been upping its prevention measures after it closed several distribution centers found with employees confirmed with COVID-19. According to Coupang, the inspectors will monitor its distribution centers to make sure that all orders made are prepared and delivered under the safety g

COVID-19 has hit the global car industry harder than any other financial crisis, and car sales will not recover to last year’s levels until around 2023, a market analyst said Friday. Lee Bo-sung, the head of Hyundai Motor Group’s global business R&D center, delivered those predictions at a seminar organized by the Korea Automobile Journalists Association. Members of KAJA gathered at the AMG Speedway, a driving circuit in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, to attend the seminar and s

Hyundai Motor’s new, face-lifted version of the Santa Fe is here with a much different look and smarter system, set to regain its reputation as the first SUV to sell 100,000 vehicles in South Korea. The automaker released the refreshed version of its signature family sport utility vehicle on June 30, two years after it launched the fourth-generation model in 2018. For the year, the car sold over 100,000 units, making it the first SUV in the 100,000 club. As changes are often subtle

While South Korea’s tobacco market is expected to decline overall, the sales of heated tobacco products will edge up this year, a market research firm said Thursday. According to Euromonitor International, the Korean tobacco market reached 17.19 trillion won ($16 billion) in 2019. Of the total, 1.89 trillion won was spent on heat-not-burn cigarettes, which put the country as the second-largest market in the world after Japan. The industry tracker forecast Korea’s heating tobacco

BMW Korea said Wednesday it plans to launch the plug-in hybrid sports sedan New 330e, with a greater electric range. With the addition of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the German automaker said it has completed its New 3 Series lineup. The BMW New 330e is equipped with 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that can create up to 292 horsepower and 42.8 kilogram-meters of torque. It accelerates to 100 kilometers per hour in 5.9 seconds. With the Xtraboost function, the car can s

Philip Morris Korea Managing Director Paik Young-jay urged Tuesday for the government to come up with differentiated regulations for its heat-not-burn e-cigarettes, as the industry is largely misrepresented due to its “ideological” approach, rather than based on science. Speaking at his first press conference held live on YouTube, the new managing director emphasized that heated tobacco products are less harmful substitutes for conventional cigarettes. In the first quarter of this

Oriental Brewery’s flagship beer brand Cass unveiled the lineup for “Cass Blue Playground Connect 2.0,” its annual music festival, on social media Monday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert will be livestreamed on its official YouTube channel and Facebook, on July 18 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., the company said. The lineup includes Sehun & Chanyeol of K-pop boy group EXO (EXO-SC), who were recently selected as Cass summer campaign models, K-pop girl group Red Velvet

Pernod Ricard Korea President and CEO Jean Touboul (center) draws on a bottle that has been prepainted with Airlite, an eco-friendly paint, during the Absolut Eco Street Art Project held by the company in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, on Monday. The liquor maker built a structure using container boxes, on which a graffiti artist Xeva depicted “The Breathing City,” using special eco-friendly paint Airlite. The Absolut Eco Street Art Project is Pernod Ricard Korea’s first attem

Baedal Minjok, a South Korean food delivery app, said Monday it is making progress in expanding business in Vietnam with its shared kitchen service, helping Korean food franchises tap into the market there. The food delivery service, operated by Woowa Brothers, said it plans to open second and third Baemin Kitchen branches in Ho Chi Minh in the second half of this year, following the first store that opened in November 2019. The company presented its food delivery app Baemin in Ho Chi Minh in

The state COVID-19 relief funds distributed in May appear to have led more people to eat out or spend money on food at physical stores, according to data released by the country’s statistics agency on Friday. Statistics Korea said the value of online shopping transactions was 12.72 trillion won ($10.6 billion) in May, up 13.1 percent compared to a year earlier. The online shopping transaction value had jumped 24.5 percent in February, but with the COVID-19 spreading further in March,

It’s been 18 years since Porsche released the Cayenne, its first sport utility vehicle, but skeptics still questioning the vehicle’s “Porsche DNA.” Undeterred, the carmaker has continued to bolster its SUV lineup, and sales show Porsche’s decision was right. Its SUV sales now double those of smaller sports cars in some markets, including the US. In Korea, the Cayenne is attributed as having set the pace for the popularity of premium SUVs. This year, the carma