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Mo Tae-bum, left, and Lee Sang-hwa, second from left, ...

Park Keun-hee, 10th from left, president of Samsung ...

Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) Chairman ...

Dongkuk Steel chalks up strong performances

By Kim Tae-gyu Staff reporter As far as business results are concerned, Dongkuk Steel holds bragging rights on its strong performance ― the firm has chalked up operating profits over the past three decades, since it opened in 1981. In other words, the corporation did not fall into negative territory in the New Millennium even during such business slumps as the info-tech bubble burst in the early 2000s or the international financial crisis in the late 2000s. Last year, the Seoul-headquartered company racked up 4.6 trillion won in sales for an operating profit of 153.7 billion won. Both are touted as solid figures, achieved despite the economic turbulence. Dongkuk said that its competitive edge comes from continuous efforts on innovation and change as shown by its stronghold in thick steel plates for ships, the quality of which is unrivaled thanks to brisk in-house research, according to the outfit. It also increased capacity of its flagship products ― on top of its existing production lines with an annual capacity of 2.9 million tons in Pohang, North Gyeongsang

New blast furnace raises Hyundai Steel’s status

By Kim Tae-gyu Staff reporter People believed that Hyundai Steel is a competitor of POSCO but that is not 100 percent true as the latter cranked out high-quality products from blast furnaces while the former mainly churned out less expensive ones from electrical arc furnaces. But Hyundai Steel has emerged as a genuine contender in the game as the Incheon-based outfit opened a new state-of-the-art blast furnace in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province last month after years of construction. The affiliate of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group can currently produce up to 4 million tons of steel products annually. The capacity will rise to 8 million tons this November and 12 million tons in 2015 when additional facilities are installed. Hyundai Steel expects that the Dangjin mills will be able to contribute to the Hyundai Automotive Group and the country as well as local communities. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, which together make up the world's sixth-largest carmaker, have mostly depended on steel from POSCO to build vehicles because Hyundai Steel's products made of

POSCO fixes eyes on quality

By Kim Tae-gyu Staff reporter POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, is going all-out to increase the quality of its products in order to remain ahead of the curve in neck-and-neck competition worldwide. Toward that end, the Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province-based outfit has put forth efforts into research and development (R&D) under the stewardship of its quality-conscious Chairman Chung Joon-yang. Chung, who took the reins of the company early last year, has always put quality on the front burner and commissioned a company-wide ``claim zero'' campaign aimed at satisfying customers to the fullest. ``It is hard to meet the needs of customers 100 percent. Yet, we are required to offer the best products to them and this represents the basic idea behind the `claim zero' campaign,'' Chung told a meeting with employees in February. ``To achieve the goal, we should pinpoint any problems so as to eradicate them. The campaign is not merely about attaining the target but about figuring out why we have failed to do so.'' The charismatic head reiterated his f

Forestation: clothing the mountains

By Michael Breen When foreign war veterans visit the battlefields in Korea where they fought North Korean and Chinese forces 60 years ago, they notice one enormous change in the terrain: trees. They're everywhere. The once bare hills of wartime Korea are now clothed in foliage. As remarkable as it is for veterans, this stunning visual change in the Korean landscape tends to get overlooked by the analysts and authors who write about the Korean miracle, because their experience is with the city, where they focus on construction and industry. The parts of the countryside story that do get included in the broader national narrative tend to be those with a political edge, such as the forcible removal in the 1970s of almost every thatched roof in the country by President Park Chung-hee (1961-1979), who thought corrugated iron was modern and straw was backward. This is a pity because the transformation of the non-arable landscape in South Korea is one of the most successful examples of environmental policy in modern Asia, one that has changed the country and inspired others to

Meeting today’s challenges, forging tomorrow’s solutions

This is the 10th in a 12-part series of “The Korea Times . the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Joint Project” designed to identify new realities in the post-crisis world and provide winning strategies for leading Korean firms in 11 key industries. In cooperation with BCG, The Korea Times will look into a wide variety of issues both in the global economy and major indstries. ― ED. By Ko Young-suk The current financial crisis has hit economies hard. Steel makers around the world, facing collapsing demand and falling prices, are shifting their business priorities to focus primarily on managing operating costs, securing capital and sustaining client relationships. In this context, some in the industry may question the relevance of managing for environmental sustainability. In our view, however, this should be at the forefront of steel makers' agendas. Indeed, for many, managing for environmental sustainability is no longer merely an option but an imperative. Volatile ― and, in the long-term, rising ― prices for energy and resources, together with tightening environment r

Woori Bank chief executive Lee Chong-whi, center, ...

LG Electronics’ brand-new dishwasher is introduced in ...