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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Kumho Tire feared to delay push for European plant

Kumho Tire’s plan to build a manufacturing facility in Europe seems to be losing momentum after the tiremaker’s management effectively conceded to its union in their latest factory relocation agreement. The tire firm had long wanted to establish the new production line in one of three countries — Poland, Serbia or Portugal — so it can turn the facility into a major hub for distribution across Europe amid growing regional demand. The plan, however, hit a temporary snag after the firm’s management recently reached a long-awaited agreement with its union over the relocation of its Gwangju plant in the southwestern city to Hampyeong, South Jeolla Province, following a fire that destroyed much of the original factory. Kumho Tire’s management initially sought to have the relocated Hampyeong factory produce up to 3 million tires each year, in an apparent move to push for a dual expansion into Europe with the proposed European plant. At that time, the union expressed strong opposition, fearing job losses due to the new overseas production line. Union workers urged the management to g

Aug 18, 2025By Lee Min-hyung
Kumho Tire feared to delay push for European plant

Hyundai Motor Group’s owner family honored with major US award

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, founding Chairman Chung Ju-yung and honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo have been recognized with the Automotive News Centennial Award for their contributions to the global automotive industry. On Sunday (local time), U.S. publication Automotive News named the Chung family leaders as key figures in advancing mobility, highlighting the achievements of the group’s automotive brands — Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis — which have seen major success under the executive chair’s leadership. The award is part of Automotive News’ 100th anniversary celebrations and will be presented during the Automotive News Congress in Detroit on Sept. 11, where the executive chair will participate in a keynote discussion with Automotive News publisher KC Crain. Other award recipients include Toyota Motor’s Toyoda family, represented by Chairman Akio Toyoda; Stellantis Chairman John Elkann; General Motors CEO Mary Barra; and Ford Motor Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. Since becoming executive chair in October 2020, Chung Euisun has elevated Hyundai Motor Gr

Aug 18, 2025By Lee Min-hyung
Hyundai Motor Group’s owner family honored with major US award

Hyundai Motor dealer wins glory with preemptive customer feedback

Lee Jung-ho, a sales director for Hyundai Motor, has achieved the title of grand sales master thanks to his decadeslong habit of offering preemptive feedback for auto maintenance to his customers. Lee won the glory from the carmaker after recently achieving 5,000 accumulated vehicle sales since joining the company in 1992, the equivalent of average annual sales of 152 cars over 33 years. He differentiated himself from other salespeople by offering after-sales services continuously for the vehicles he sold — mostly taxis. “Taxi sales account for some 70 percent of my total sales,” Lee said during a telephone interview Thursday. “Unlike most other salesmen in the industry, I keep contacting customers even after sales and give them timely notifications on when they need maintenance for their vehicles. Taxi drivers travel approximately 70,000 kilometers each year in Seoul, and they require more frequent maintenance than vehicles owned by typical households, according to Lee. “I leave a note after selling vehicles and notify customers around the time when certain parts of their vehic

Aug 18, 2025By Lee Min-hyung
Hyundai Motor dealer wins glory with preemptive customer feedback

US seeks shipbuilding expertise from South Korea, Japan to counter China

WASHINGTON — American lawmakers are using a trip to South Korea and Japan to explore how the United States can tap those allies’ shipbuilding expertise and capacity to help boost its own capabilities, which are dwarfed by those of China. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Andy Kim, D-N.J., who are scheduled to land in Seoul on Sunday before traveling to Japan, plan to meet top shipbuilders from the world’s second- and third-largest shipbuilding countries. The senators want to examine the possibilities of forming joint ventures to construct and repair noncombatant vessels for the U.S. Navy in the Indo-Pacific and bring investments to American shipyards. “We already have fewer capacity now than we did during Operation Iraqi Freedom" in 2003, Duckworth told The Associated Press. “We have to rebuild the capacity. At the same time, what capacity we have is aging and breaking down and taking longer and more expensive to fix.” Their trip comes as President Donald Trump demands a plan to revive U.S. shipyards and engage foreign partners. The Pentagon is seeking $47 billion for shipb

Aug 17, 2025By AP
US seeks shipbuilding expertise from South Korea, Japan to counter China

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOKPOSCO Group chairman absent from another presidential event

It's no longer unusual for a POSCO Group chairman to be absent from presidential events, following the transfer of political power. Just like his predecessor under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration, POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa has skipped a series of events held by the Lee Jae Myung government, despite his role as leader of Korea's sixth-largest business group. While top executives from Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, Lotte, Hanwha, HD Hyundai, GS, Shinsegae, Hanjin and Doosan participated in Friday's ceremony to celebrate the new government, Chang was not among them. In addition, POSCO Group did not send the chairman or any executives to the Aug. 11 state dinner for To Lam, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The banquet also included senior executives of Korea's leading conglomerates. When asked about the chairman's absence, POSCO Group denied speculation that he had been uninvited, saying he is currently focusing on establishing measures to prevent industrial accidents. The group was recently rebuked by the president due to repeated accidents at its stee

Aug 17, 2025By Park Jae-hyuk
POSCO Group chairman absent from another presidential event

Hyundai Motor seeks earlier auto tariff relief via Lee-Trump summit

Next week's summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump could be a major turning point for Hyundai Motor Group, which is hoping for the immediate implementation of the agreed tariff cut on Korean vehicles, industry officials said Sunday. It has been more than two weeks since Seoul and Washington reached a trade deal that will reduce both the blanket tariff and the U.S. auto tariff on Korean-made automobiles and auto parts by 10 percentage points, from 25 percent to 15 percent. However, Korean carmakers are still subject to the existing 25 percent tariff on exports to the U.S., as an additional executive order by Trump is required to enact the new auto tariff, unlike the blanket tariff. To this end, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun will join Lee’s U.S. trip as a member of the business delegation, raising the possibility of a second meeting for him with Trump this year alone. In May, Chung visited the White House to announce the group’s $21 billion (29.2 trillion won) investment in the U.S. According to industry officials, it remains possible

Aug 17, 2025By Lee Min-hyung
Hyundai Motor seeks earlier auto tariff relief via Lee-Trump summit

Korean large firms' combined operating profit drops 1.7% in H1 without SK hynix: data

Major Korean companies, excluding chip giant SK hynix, saw their operating profit decline 1.7 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier amid lingering economic uncertainties, industry data showed Sunday. According to the data from corporate tracker CEO Score, 342 of the country's top 500 companies by sales that released their half-yearly reports posted a combined 1,655.3 trillion won in sales for the January-June period, up 5.5 percent from a year earlier. Their aggregated operating profit rose 5.9 percent on-year to 118.5 trillion won. However, when excluding SK hynix, which reported the largest operating profit of 16.7 trillion won for the period, their combined operating income fell 1.7 percent from a year earlier. SK hynix's operating profit nearly doubled from 8.4 trillion won a year ago, driven by rising demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) amid a boom for artificial intelligence (AI) computing. Tech giant Samsung Electronics placed second with an operating profit of 11.4 trillion won for the first half, down 33.4 percent from a year earlier. Hyundai Motor logged 7.

Aug 17, 2025By Yonhap
Korean large firms' combined operating profit drops 1.7% in H1 without SK hynix: data

Gov't AI initiative faces financing questions

President Lee Jae Myung unveiled an ambitious plan to spend 210 trillion won ($151.11 billion) for its five-year policy agenda, which includes a package of technology and industry initiatives aimed at making Korea one of the world's top three powerhouses in the global artificial intelligence (AI) industry. However, questions loom over how these transformative ambitions will be financed. With the country's towering national debt, concerns are growing that further stretching the nation's finances to support the AI policy could seriously undermine the country’s fiscal prudence. The State Affairs Planning Committee on Wednesday announced the Lee administration's economic policy plans, highlighted by its goal of becoming the world’s top three AI powerhouses. As part of this goal, the government has proposed an "AI energy highway" project, which will secure over 50,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), set up advanced data and electric infrastructures across the nation, develop next-generation core AI technologies and nurture specialized talent. However, it remains uncertain whether the pr

Aug 16, 2025By Lee Gyu-lee
Gov't AI initiative faces financing questions

Can Samyang's Buldak instant noodles defy US tariffs?

Buldak instant noodle maker Samyang Foods is under pressure to deal with the United States’ 15 percent tariff on all Korean imports, which took effect this month. The instant noodles have gained major popularity across global markets, especially seeing spiking demands in the U.S., but the company remains cautious. The company has no manufacturing facility in the U.S., meaning the new tariff will hit every Buldak packet on shelves at retail outlets in the world’s biggest economy. With the Buldak brand now at an inflection point in the U.S. market as it establishes itself to be as common a product as sriracha hot sauce, Samyang is considering how to maintain its popularity while sustaining exports, which accounted for 80 percent of its total sales last year. Instant noodles were in a tariff-free zone until April, when the Donald Trump administration began levying a 10 percent “basic tariff” on all imports regardless of origin. The pressure has now intensified further, as Korea and the U.S. have agreed on a 15 percent blanket tariff. Though details remain unclear, Samyang Foods has

Aug 16, 2025By Ko Dong-hwan
Can Samyang's Buldak instant noodles defy US tariffs?

Daewoo E&C emerges as leader in large-scale public projects

Daewoo Engineering & Construction (E&C) is expanding its presence in large-scale national infrastructure projects in and outside of Korea, demonstrating its competitiveness not only in technology but also in the ability to lead and coordinate. In June, the company became the lead constructor for Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP)’s project to build two reactors for the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. Their participation marks an important milestone for Daewoo E&C, as its lead constructor status demonstrates the company’s capability to oversee every stage of commercial nuclear power plant construction, which the Czech government considers its most critical future energy project. In the transportation sector, the company participated in the Great Train eXpress (GTX) project, a major railway construction aimed at easing traffic congestion and reducing commute times in Korea’s capital area. Daewoo E&C joined the GTX-A line, which began service last December, and served as the lead project manager for the GTX-B line, which is set to begin construction. It is also play

Aug 15, 2025
Daewoo E&C emerges as leader in large-scale public projects
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