Coway Co., South Korea’s leading water purifier maker, said it began full operation of its production plant in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, to meet high demand for its new ice-making water purifier. Sales of Coway’s Icon ice-making water purifier jumped 30 percent on-year in July as frequent heat waves sizzled the nation. The new product’s inventory for August was sold out in the beginning of the month, and orders continue to flood in, according to a Coway official.

A majority of South Korean exporters expect exports to drop in the second half of this year, compared to the first six months, due to declining demand in China and the US, and rising commodity prices, a recent survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed Wednesday. According to the poll conducted in the last week of July, 65 percent of 300 local exporters said exports will fall in the June-December period, while 23 percent said they won’t change much, and the remaining 12.3

South Korea’s inflation rate this year is likely to exceed 5 percent, marking the highest in 24 years, as average consumer prices in the first seven months have risen 4.9 percent from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea. In July, consumer prices rose at the fastest pace since November 1998, posting a 6.3 percent increase on-year, mainly due to high energy and food prices. The government and the Bank of Korea expect inflation to peak in the fall and start to slow thereafter as inter

Millions of South Korean vacationers have flown overseas, driven to beaches and mountains around the country to escape the relentless heat this summer. Ever since the pandemic rules against gatherings were lifted, crowds with pent-up energy have packed just about anywhere, from sports stadiums and waterparks to theaters and art exhibits. During the country’s peak summer holiday season from late July through early August when most workers take off, a normally 2.5-hour drive from Seoul to

Despite changes in corporate culture that place more value on the quality of work environments, South Korea still has a more rigid working hour system compared to advanced economies, according to a report by the business lobby organization Federation of Korean Industries released Thursday. The report suggests companies give workers the option to work more when they need to, and take longer breaks in return. The statutory working hours in Korea are eight hours per day and 40 hours per week, unli

The Export-Import Bank of Korea said Thursday its executives, including its new CEO and heads of relevant departments, discussed credit support plans to help businesses tide over inflation, high interest rates and the weakening Korean won. Based on judgment that the unstable global supply of raw materials led to high prices, the “economic emergency task force” of Eximbank decided to increase the credit support for tackling the global supply chain crisis from the current 15 trillion

LS Cable & System is expanding investment and tapping into new markets for undersea cables amid a rapidly growing demand for offshore wind power generation, which requires high-quality subsea cables, as countries began executing policies for carbon neutrality. Early this year, LS Cable inked a deal worth 350 billion won ($266 million) to supply undersea cables for wind power in North America. Demand for subsea cables is expected to grow further as US President Joe Biden announced earlier

The average jeonse price of apartments in Seoul this month fell for the first time in three years and three months as demand dropped due to increased lease renewals and rising interest rates while supply rose. Jeonse is a home rental system in Korea where a tenant pays a lump-sum deposit, instead of monthly rent, to a landlord. The deposit typically ranges between 60 to 80 percent of the unit‘s sale price, and is fully refunded at the end of the contract period. According to KB Kookmin

Audi sold a total of 25,615 vehicles in South Korea last year, marking the third-largest sales volume among import carmakers here. The German automaker said it has focused on expanding its lineup to include compact vehicles such as the Audi Q3 and A3, as well as electric cars e-tron S and Q4 e-tron. In 2021, Audi sold 1,553 electric cars, the largest number of electric cars sold among premium import car brands. In December, it launched the Audi e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT, which are at the van

The Federation of Korean Industries said on Wednesday that the average annual wage per employee of listed companies rose 43.4 percent in the 10 years preceding 2021. During that time, their average revenue only rose 12.5 percent. The average annual salary per worker jumped from 55.93 million won ($42,600) in 2011 to 80.16 million won in 2021, while the listed firms’ revenue per employee went from 960 million won to about 1.1 billion won in the same period, the lobby of the nation’s

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, an introspective self-report questionnaire that divides people into 16 types, has been a popular topic of conversation or pastime among millennials and Generation Z in South Korea, as the pandemic gave them more time to introspect. It’s not uncommon to see the young cohort -- those born between the 1980s up to the 2010s -- start conversations with people they meet for the first time by asking each other about their MBTI types – a combination of extra

An upward pressure on wages caused by inflation will be the biggest ordeal for businesses in the long run, said Chey Tae-won, who is chairman of both SK Group and the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the nation’s largest business lobby. “Dealing with inflation was expected,” Chey told reporters at the KCCI Jeju Forum which opened Wednesday on Jeju Island. “I think it will be much more difficult especially for small- and medium-sized companies which hire a lot of

Having succeeded in reforestation through nationwide tree-planting campaigns in the 1970s, South Korea has been a role model in forest restoration for many developing nations, and is now internationally recognized for sustainable forest management. In a 2020 study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on Forestry that compared nations’ growth of forest resources per hectare between 1990 and 2015, South Korea showed the highest growth among countries in the Asia-Pa

Under a new vision called “Green Connector,” South Korea’s leading chemicals maker LG Chem is expanding activities to help resolve environmental and social problems. To raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity, the company has refurbished the Bamseom Ecological Experience Center on Mapo Bridge over the Han River, which it built with the Seoul city government in December 2018.  LG Chem also began an online mentoring program, “Like Green,” with college

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met with Mexico’s top diplomat at the SK headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday, where he stressed that the conglomerate will play an active role in economic cooperation between the two countries. Chey also asked for Mexico’s support of South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan. During his meeting with Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard, Chey talked about SK’s technology across such sectors as batteries, biotechno