The Korea Times

Hyosung sets up sculpture for soldiers injured from landmine attack

Hyosung Group President Cho Hyun-joon, second from right, stands with soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, who were at the scene of Aug. 4 mine explosion, beside the Foot of Peace sculpture during its unveiling ceremony at Imjingak’s Pyeonghwa-Nuri Park in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Hyosung GroupBy Park Jin-haiHyosung Group held the opening ceremony on Wednesday for the sculpture commemorating the soldiers injured during the North Korean landmine attack in the DMZ in August.The company sponsored the creation of the sculpture, “The first step to peace and unity ― the foot of peace,” at Imjingak Pyeonghwa-Nuri Park in Gyeonggi Province. The 170 soldiers on duty that August day were present at the opening ceremony, including the two severely injured in the attack.Hyosung said it commissioned the sculpture to pay tribute to the patriots, and to wish for peaceful unification.It paid 200 million won for the monument.“The ‘foot of peace’ evokes the wishes of all people in thanking our soldiers for their hard work, contributio

Dec 23, 2015By Park Jin-hai

SK chief's daughter returns home

Companies

Hyundai Motor communicates with art

Hyundai Motor will hold “SIM: Sculpture in Motion,” an exhibition at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza through Jan. 10, where the Hyundai Motor brand and design philosophy will be shared with the public. / Courtesy of Hyundai MotorBy Park Jin-haiHyundai Motor, which recently launched its luxury Genesis brand and toils to boost its brand image, will hold an exhibit of its design philosophy, aiming to let the art pieces do the talking.Titled “SIM: Sculpture in Motion,” the exhibit will be held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza until Jan. 10, where the Hyundai Motor brand’s DNA and design philosophy will be on display to the public.The exhibit will be comprised of three parts. “Fluidic,” the company’s first Sculpture in Motion project introduced at Milan Design Week in 2013, and “Helio Curve,” showcased at Milan Design Week this year, will be displayed. The two collections have received the Red Dot Design Award.“Fluidic symbolizes the process that creates something from nothing, which portrays Hyundai’s design philosoph

Dec 21, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Hyosung to export energy solution to India, Panama

By Park Jin-haiHyosung Group has signed contracts in India and Panama to export its energy solution called STATCOM.The static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) is a cutting-edge energy solution with improved voltage stability and space saving.The company will supply 100 Mvar STATCOM to India and 240 Mbar to Panama, in deals worth a total $30 million.Hyosung is the only local energy company that has succeeded in commercializing the technology, having tested its stability with state-run power company KEPCO.“The product uses a modular multi-level converter developed under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy as a national research project,” a Hyosung official said.“Compared with conventional STATCOM, it can save apace more than ten times.”Only three companies in the world, including Hyosung, have commercialized this kind of STATCOM.“The energy solution has high added value and is Hyosung’s one pillar of future growth, together with its energy storage system and ultra high voltage equipment,” said Hyosung President Cho Hyun-joon.“We w

Dec 21, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Hyundai E&C leads CSR at home and abroad

Hyundai E&C employees pose after holding an opening ceremony for Happy Home School, an after-school class project for children living in poverty, in Bogota, Colombia, on April 25. / Courtesy of Hyundai E&CBy Park Jin-haiHyundai E&C, a building arm under Hyundai Motor Group, has been leading corporate social responsibility activities (CSR) at home and abroad.The company raised “Love Sharing Fund” campaign and donated 347 million won to the charity this year.The annual fundraising activity, which started out as a CSR program in 2010, has involved a total of over 3,200 employees including 707 from its affiliates.They voluntarily chipped in a bit of their salaries every month ranging from 3,000 won up to 30,000 won for the whole year and donated them for various charity campaigns to support surgery for children with severe disabilities, repair houses of the underprivileged in Jongno-gu at home.It will be also used to improve the living conditions of slums in Uzbekistan, deliver solar powered lanterns to Uganda refugees, and help Indonesian poor to secure drinking

Dec 21, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Tesla prepares to open Korean office

Tesla Model S is seen in this file photo, Friday. / Courtesy of Tesla MotorsBy Park Jin-haiTesla Motors, a leading American electric vehicle manufacturer, is starting to make inroads into the Korean market.The company registered itself in Korea as Tesla Korea Limited on Nov.13 and is gearing up to start doing business here, according to the corporate register by the Supreme Court of Korea, Friday.Registered under co-CEOs Todd Maron, currently general counsel at Tesla Motors, and Susan Repo, director at Tesla Financial Services, the new corporation has its offices in Gangnam, southern Seoul, with a starting capital of 100 million won.The purpose of its business, as stated in the corporate registration document, is that Tesla will provide services to import, distribute and sell auto parts and accessories.With this new entity, rumors about Tesla cars entering the local market have gained force again.The company fanned such speculation in July, when its U.S. headquarters posted a recruiting announcement for a sales vice president position for the Japanese and Korean markets.Last month, J

Dec 18, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Vehicle insurance policies changed for 117 models

By Park Jin-haiVehicle insurance policies for a total of 117 models will either increase or decrease by 5 to 10 percent from next year, according to the Korea Insurance Development Institute (KIDI), Friday.Amid increasing complaints that owners of expensive imported cars, cause excessive liability for domestic car owners in auto accidents, the institute announced new grades for vehicle models that become the basis of insurance policies.On a scale of 1 to 26, the organization considers the degree of car damage in case of accidents, repair convenience and part prices in order to grade each model. Insurance companies take these grades into consideration when calculating vehicle insurance policies. When a grade is raised a notch, the insurance policy goes down five percent.Out of 238 cars, 57 models including the Kia K3, Jaguar and BMW 5-series have seen downgrades, causing their policies to go up by 5 to 10 percent, while 60 including the Kia Sorento R, Volkswagen Golf, BMW X-series and Mercedes C-class have seen their grades improved, lowering their insurance policies by the same amoun

Dec 18, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

Hyundai to test autonomous cars in U.S.

By Park Jin-haiHyundai Motor gained testing licenses for its autonomous driving vehicles, clearing the way for the nation’s largest carmaker to test its self-driving technologies on the highways of the United States, the company said Monday.It said the carmaker obtained licenses on Dec. 11 for a total of four autonomous vehicles ― two Tucson hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and two Soul electric cars ― to test-drive on the highways of Nevada.It is the first times for a local carmaker to obtain such licenses in the U.S.  “In particular, the two Tucson cars will be the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell cars mounting autonomous driving technologies,” said Hyundai Motor.  “It is the outcome of Hyundai’s ceaseless effort to secure green future technologies.”The company said the standards for autonomous car licenses in the state of Nevada are higher than for the rest of the U.S., requiring a technology presentation and demonstration.With the license, Hyundai became the second passenger carmaker to receive a driving endorsement fr

Dec 14, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

EnerNOC to help Korea change way it uses energy

Aaron Breidenbaugh                                                /Koreatimes photo by Choi Won-suk Senior director Breidenbaugh sees huge potential for DR market in KoreaBy Park Jin-haiAaron Breidenbaugh, senior director at EnerNOC, a global provider of energy intelligence software and services, says Korea has one of the biggest potentials for the demand response (DR) market.Contrary to the common response to increase power production, according to the rising needs, DR is about replacing energy need by creating “virtual power plants.”“For the longest time, load has been taken as a given and it was the job to build power plants to meet the load. That went through most part of 20th century,” said Breidenbaugh during a recent interview with The Korea Times.Instead of spending billions to build more physical power plants, demand response pays energy users to reduce consumption to help maintain the balance, he said.“It is essentially a

Dec 13, 2015By Park Jin-hai

EnerNOC to help Korea change way it uses energy

Companies

Renault gives large discounts for QM3

Renault Samsung’s QM3 compact SUVBy Park Jin-haiRenault Samsung Motors has been pushing sales of its QM3 compact SUV ahead of the end of the government’s temporary consumption tax cut on automobiles this month. The company is offering hefty discounts in December for the QM3, which has led the local fad for compact SUVs.The carmaker says customers can purchase cars at prices reduced by as much as 2 million won this month.For a vehicle priced at 25 million won, customers can get a nearly 500,000 won discount due to the tax cut.For cash payments, 1 million won will be supported by the carmaker, while an additional 500,000 won will be provided if they trade their old Renault, registered before December 2010, for a new car. The tax cut, however, only applies to cars delivered this month. So if the customer makes a contract to purchase the car this month, but cannot take delivery due to short supply or delivery time lag, they cannot get the benefits. “Among the compact SUVs, the QM3 is the only model that customers can take delivery of this month. With the

Dec 10, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Companies

POSCO E&C appoints Saudi board members

By Park Jin-haiThe company named Ahmed Al-Subaey, 55, Aramco's executive director for marketing, as inside director and Mohammad A. Abunayyan, ACWA Power’s chairman, as non-executive director, as recommended by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF).POSCO E&C, the construction unit of POSCO Group, held an interim shareholders meeting Thursday and appointed Saudi Aramco’s executive director as an inside director.POSCO sold a 38 percent stake in its construction arm to PIF in September. Currently, POSCO is the largest shareholder with 52.8 percent stake in POSCO E&C, followed by PIF, with 38 percent and others with 9.2 percent.Under the deal, the two plan to launch a joint venture for infrastructure and other construction projects commissioned by the Saudi Arabian government.Al-Subaey will be POSCO E&C’s vice president, working as an adviser to the CEO. He will shuttle between Saudi and Korea, and be directly involved in POSCO E&C’s management.Previously, he has served as S-Oil CEO between 2008 and 2012. During th

Dec 10, 2015By Park Jin-hai

Park Jin-hai

Read more

Hyosung sets up sculpture for soldiers injured from landmine attack

Hyundai Motor communicates with art

Hyosung to export energy solution to India, Panama

Hyundai E&C leads CSR at home and abroad

Tesla prepares to open Korean office

Vehicle insurance policies changed for 117 models

Hyundai to test autonomous cars in U.S.

EnerNOC to help Korea change way it uses energy

Renault gives large discounts for QM3

POSCO E&C appoints Saudi board members

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