South Korean Trade Minister Sung Yun-mo is slated to leave for the United Arab Emirates on Saturday to discuss further partnerships with his counterparts in the energy sector as a follow-up to the summit in March of last year. The minister is also slated to express the government’s strong willingness to support the maintenance of the Barakah nuclear power plant should a Korean bidder win, ministry officials said Wednesday.During his stay, the minister, accompanied by CEOs of the Korea Hydro & Nu

Samsung SDI’s battery packs will be used for new electric motorcycles of the US motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson, according to the Korean battery maker on Tuesday. The US firm’s first electric motorcycle, called Livewire, will feature Samsung’s batteries and will be able to travel 180 kilometers on a single charge. This is twice as long as the firm’s prototype electric motorcycle, Project Livewire, which ran 97 kilometers on a single charge in 2014. Livewire will be able to go from zero t

Hanwha Q Cells, the solar cell manufacturing arm of Hanwha Group, took up the largest share in the German solar module market last year, according to German research firm EuPD Research. Hanwha’s share in the market stood at 11.5 percent, up 4.3 percent from 2017. It is followed by two German firms, Heckert Solar and IBC Solar, which had 8.2 percent and 7 percent share each. Hanwha Q CellIts major products in the module area are Q.HOME, a household energy storage solution that comprises modules,

(LG Electronics)LG Electronics’ premium robotic vacuum Cordzero R9 ThinQ, designed by artist Kenny Scharf, is showcased. The appliances decorated with pop-art graphics will be displayed at Scharf’s solo exhibition “Super Pop Universe” at Lotte Museum of Art in Seoul until March 3. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

South Korean shipbuilders regained the top spot in the global market share of shipbuilding orders last year, beating their Chinese counterparts for the first time in seven years due mainly to a surge in demand for liquefied natural gas carriers. The industry, which has just turned a corner, still faces challenges in offshore drilling. According to London-based offshore and energy tracker Clarkson Research, global orders of Korean shipbuilders stood at 12.6 million compensated gross tonnage last

The South Korean government vowed Thursday to toughen regulations against leaks of the nation’s key technologies, including artificial intelligence, chips and panels, amid growing concerns that Korea may lose industrial competitiveness to rivals without the proper protection of its core technologies.During a Thursday meeting presided by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, the government released a set of measures to prevent leaks of the nations’ industrial technologies.  (Yonhap)The key aspect of the me

The state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) predicted the nation’s export growth would slow down in the first quarter of this year due to the possibility of prolonged trade conflicts between the US and China and growing uncertainties in Europe in the wake of Brexit. Kotra said Wednesday the nation’s export leading indicator dropped 5.5 points to 52.1 points in the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter, based on a survey done on around 2,200 foreign buyers and exp

South Korea’s exports set a new high of $600 billion in 2018 mainly driven by a strong performance in chips, petrochemicals and machinery, according to the government on Tuesday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the nation’s trade volume hit a record high of $1.1 trillion, having a trade surplus of $70 billion. Exports stood at $605 billion, up 5.5 percent from 2017, and imports recorded $534 billion, an 11 percent rise during the same period. Chip exports played a key role in exp

The nation’s largest companies including Samsung have improved transparency in their corporate governance by cutting the links of cross-shareholding structures often blamed for strengthening control of the founders’ descendants over the conglomerates, the antitrust watchdog said Friday.On Friday, the Fair Trade Commission announced 15 companies -- out of the nation’s largest 60 firms -- that have voluntarily made efforts in either improving ownership structure or corporate governance, or easing

South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, have set aside around 7.7 trillion won ($6.8 billion) to help reduce the wage gap between large and small companies, joining efforts for mutual growth initiated by the privately run Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership. A total of 21 companies and public organizations agreed to allocate the money for the next three years, said the privately run commission on Tuesday. The organization was set up in 2010 to address

South Korean prosecutors will speed up their probe into the alleged accounting fraud of Samsung Biologics, focusing on securing evidence as to whether Samsung’s now-defunct control tower was involved. Investigators plan to summon former and incumbent employees of the biotechnology firm within the week, according to sources Sunday. The prosecution raided the main office of Samsung BioLogics in Songdo, Incheon, over the allegation that the company had illegally inflated the company’s value. Separa

South Korea must increase its efforts to enforce laws against bribery of foreign public officials, as enforcement is weak in view of the size of the nation’s economy and its export-oriented nature, said a report released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.“The decrease in foreign bribery enforcement (in Korea) since 2011 is a cause for concern, especially in view of the size of the Korean economy, its export-oriented nature, and the geographical and industrial

It is easy to misread Kim Sang-jo, the chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, who is well known as an erudite economist and a passionate anti-chaebol activist. Ever since he was named to head the nation’s top watchdog in June 2017, views have clashed between those that forewarned an end to the heyday of South Korea’s conglomerates and those that impugned whether the “chaebol sniper” would live up to his nickname. Halfway through his three-year tenure, Kim has completed the exhausting task of con

Hyundai Heavy Industries said Tuesday it has signed a contract with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration for depot maintenance of the third unit (1,800 tons) of the Chang Bogo-II submarine. Under the contract worth 55.5 billion won ($49 million), the Korean shipbuilder is slated to deliver the submarine to the Korean Navy by 2020. The depot maintenance project is designed to replace and repair parts of the interior of the submarine. Hyundai Heavy Industries already completed depot main

In line with the South Korean government’s push to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with Southeast Asia, Korean entrepreneurs are increasingly seeking new opportunities in the region to benefit from its fast-growing economies, which have a combined population of 630 million and a combined gross domestic product of $2.4 trillion. The New Southern Policy is the Moon Jae-in administration’s key foreign economic policy and reflects its strong commitment to prosper together with the ASEAN coun