Samsung Electronics’ net sales in China surpassed those in South Korea for the first time in 2013, an analysis of the tech giant’s corporate report showed Wednesday.A review of the company’s corporate data by Yonhap showed that Samsung’s net sales in China hit 40.15 trillion won ($39.22 billion) last year, far greater than the 22.78 trillion won in its home market. The firm began compiling Chinese sales figures from 2007.“Net sales” refers to the amount of sales generated after deducting interna

The United Arab Emirates and South Korea have agreed in principle to sign a lucrative contract for the operation of four South Korean-built nuclear reactors in the Middle Eastern country, South Korea’s commerce minister said Tuesday.The agreement was reached during South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s recent trip to the UAE to witness the first installation of a South Korean reactor at a power plant in Barakah, some 300 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi.Negotiations for the contract on the operatio

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, a leading South Korean shipbuilder, said Tuesday it has won a $102 million order from a Singaporean company to build two LPG carriers.Hyundai Mipo, a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, said it would start building the vessels from March 2016 and deliver them to Principals of Eastern Pacific a year later. Principals of Eastern Pacific is a subsidiary of Eastern Pacific Shipping, an international ship management company headquartered in

South Korea’s economy is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year, a state-run think tank forecast Tuesday, amid expectations that the economy might be recovering from a long-term slump.Reflecting recent changes in calculation methodology for gross domestic product, however, the Korea Development Institute said its latest growth outlook represented about a 0.1-0.2 percentage point downgrade from the previous growth outlook unveiled in November last year.“The actual downgrade stemmed mostly from a

Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s largest carmaker, has adopted a two-track pricing strategy for its brand new Sonata sedan, asking for a “fair price” for higher trims while strengthening the value proposition for more mainstream models that will be sold in the highly competitive U.S. market, company officials said Friday.The automaker is offering eight trim levels for the 2015 model year Sonata, two more than the outgoing sixth-generation sedan. It said by adding more choices, consumers can pick the

The won was set to stall a three-week rally amid speculation South Korean authorities acted to limit the currency’s appreciation.The Bank of Korea and the Finance Ministry probably bought $1.5 billion on May 14 and around half of that amount on May 20 to intervene in the foreign-exchange market, Cliff Tan, the Hong Kong-based East Asian head of global markets research for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ wrote in a note yesterday. Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said this week that policy measures sho

South Korea’s commerce minister on Friday urged continued efforts by public firms, especially energy companies, to reduce their debts and enhance their productivity as the government pushes speedy normalization of their debt-laden business and lax management.The renewed call came at a special meeting with the heads of 16 public firms under the wings of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to review their promised efforts.“While urging the company heads to implement their earlier normalizat