South Korea’s government has officially approved three major taxi-hailing service brands as platform operators, in a gesture to diversity transportation means, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said Friday. Under the revised Automobile Transport Business Act, transportation platform operators are to register themselves at the Land Ministry in order to charge brokerage commission to users. The three brands are Kakao T, run by Kakao Mobility; Banban Taxi by Kornatus; and

Industry June 18, 2021

Kia on Thursday unveiled the new design concept for its showrooms, renamed “Kia Stores” to reflect a renewed brand identity and strategy. Each Kia Store will provide customized service and a varied mobility experience to users, officials said in a release. The Kia Store model was inspired by the company’s “opposites united” design philosophy, which seeks to embrace opposing concepts and combine them in an integrated design. To maximize the contrast, every Kia

Industry June 17, 2021

Sung Jung, a midsized real estate developer here, on Thursday confirmed its intention to acquire the financially struggling low-cost air carrier Eastar Jet by raising its initial bidding amount. Losing out on the bid was the well-funded consortium led by underwear manufacturer Ssang Bang Wool and equipment maker Kanglim. The companies saw their stock value take a double dip this week amid the neck-and-neck takeover battle. The real estate developer submitted its official statement to the Se

Industry June 17, 2021

The acquisition of South Korea’s low-cost carrier Eastar Jet continues to face uncertainties, with two major bidders vying neck-and-neck as of Wednesday after rivals dropped out earlier in the week. The two bidders are local construction firm SJ Co. and a consortium led by underwear manufacturer Ssang Bang Wool and equipment maker Kanglim, according to sources. SJ’s bidding price is estimated to stand at 80 billion won ($71.6 million), falling short of the estimated 100 billion

Industry June 16, 2021

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun visited an autonomous vehicle venture and a robotics firm during his trip to the US, as part of the group’s vision to grow through future mobility solutions, the automaker said Wednesday. Chung, who left for the US on Sunday, headed for Motional, a $4 billion, Boston-based joint venture kicked off in March last year by Hyundai Motor and US mobility startup Aptiv. After meeting with Motional’s executive members to discuss the technology dev

Industry June 16, 2021

As South Korea is gearing up to restrictively allow free travel on the back of vaccination progress, duty free shop operators here have set to reorganizing their offline services in anticipation of business normalization, industry data showed Tuesday. Lotte Duty Free has recently renewed its website and mobile app, adding preorder functions for products that are out of stock, according to officials. It is also working on introducing an offline duty free store exclusively dedicated to a limi

Industry June 15, 2021

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, one of South Korea’s major shipbuilders, said Monday that it has won a trillion won unit order to build an offshore crude oil storage facility. The latest order marked the first offshore facility order for DSME in three years as well as the first trillion won unit order in seven years, officials said. The company obtained the order from Brazil’s largest energy firm, the state-owned Petrobras, to construct a floating production storage

Industry June 14, 2021

SK Inc.’s French bio subsidiary Yposkesi is set to build a second commercial bioproduction site in an effort to expand its footprint in the global biopharmaceutical market, officials said Monday. The French company has announced the launch of project SKY, a plan to inject some 58 million euros ($70 million) in the construction of its new manufacturing plant. Slated for completion by 2023, the forthcoming facility will be one of the largest advanced therapy medicinal product, or ATMP, fac

Industry June 14, 2021

South Korea’s financially ailing carmaker SsangYong Motor set to sending its factory workers on rotating unpaid leave for up to two years, in a desperate move to save costs and minimize layoffs under a new buyer. The company and labor union are under talks to shape up the detailed action plan, following the unionists’ recent consent to having half of the workforce on rotating unpaid leave, officials said Thursday. The plausible scenario is to divide the workers according to their

Industry June 10, 2021

South Korea’s business circles have submitted a petition to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expressing concerns over the global move to expand the range and rate of digital services tax. The Federation of Korean Industries said Wednesday that it has submitted a joint statement on behalf of industries here, addressing OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. “The move to excessively expand the range of digital services tax and to raise its tax rate would con

Industry June 9, 2021

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun has won the top prize at the 2021 Autocar Awards for his contribution to the global car industry, the company said Wednesday. The Issigonis Trophy, named after car designer Sir Alec Issigonis, is the award given to a standout individual within the industry who is deemed to have delivered an exceptional level of success. “In the last decade, Hyundai Motor Group has grown into one of the world’s leading car firms, and Chairman Chung has be

Industry June 9, 2021

Anxiety is growing among employees of Hyundai Motor Group after an employee recently died, failing to recover from a COVID-19 infection contracted during a business trip to Kazakhstan.　 While staffers complained over a lack of protection from the company, management claimed that overseas business trips have been kept to a minimum in compliance with safety guidelines. According to Hyundai Motor, an employee of the overseas production technology team died of COVID-19 complications Saturday morn

Industry June 8, 2021

Once the nation’s most popular sedan and Hyundai Motor’s flagship model, the Sonata is apparently losing out to all-electric vehicles as the automaker moves to convert its Asan plant for the production of Ioniq 6. A number of factors have weighed down the once-bestselling model, including an unsuccessful face-lift and the increasing diversity of alternative models in the market, observers noted. The automaker is planning to suspend its Asan plant for about a month during the Jul

Industry June 7, 2021

Ourhome, the catering unit of LG Group, put an end to a yearslong management dispute as younger siblings of the owner family united to remove the elder and only son as CEO. Shareholders and board members of the food service operator on Friday passed the motion to dismiss CEO Koo Bon-sung from his top post in a meeting, after he became involved in a scandal and as the company‘s business took a hit. The board named Koo Ji-eun, the youngest sibling of the four, as the new CEO. Koo was pr

Industry June 4, 2021

South Korea’s penalties for violating labor regulations are exceptionally strict compared with those in other major economies, think tank data showed Thursday. According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, affiliated with the Federation of Korean Industries, employers in Asia’s fourth-largest economy face jail terms of up to two years or fines of up to 20 million won ($17,976) if they violate the law that sets a maximum number of working hours. The United States has no san

Industry June 3, 2021