Most Popular
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Medical profs at top hospitals suspend surgeries, clinics
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Samsung chip business back on track, logs W1.9tr operating profit in Q1
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Shinsegae faces showdown with investors over SSG.com's delayed IPO
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Lexus GS ― a great family car
The Korea Herald, in cooperation with carmakers, offers a test-driving experience to executive officials at Korean or multinational companies and ranking diplomats here. The opinion above is the author’s own. For any inquiry into this column, please contact jylee@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed. My daily routine requires me to drive to many different places in Seoul, all at different times of the day, and I must say that I feel much safer and my commute seems quicker and more practical in this marvelous Le
Feb. 17, 2013
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Korean Air to build tallest building in western U.S.
A $1 billion office-and-hotel tower being developed by Korean Air Lines Co. in downtown Los Angeles will be the tallest building in the western U.S. upon its completion in four years, according to the projects architect.The foundation of the 1,100-foot (335-meter) tower will be poured at the end of this year, with a grand opening planned for March 2017, said Chris Martin, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based architecture firm AC Martin Partners. The building will rise higher than downtow
Feb. 11, 2013
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Korea’s auto production up 23.3 percent in Jan.
Output by South Korean carmakers jumped 23.3 percent in January from a year earlier on the back of strong overseas shipments, a local industry group said Monday.Industry leader Hyundai Motor Co. and four other local automakers produced a combined 410,602 vehicles last month, according to the data compiled by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.The export volume also advanced 17.1 percent on-year to 288,344 vehicles in January, with the total value reaching $4.27 billion.Market watcher
Feb. 11, 2013
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‘Political dispute makes Mahindra balk at investment in Ssangyong’
The head of Ssangyong Motor Co. said Tuesday the automaker’s parent company Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. balked at investing in his company due to a political dispute over labor troubles at South Korea’s smallest automaker.Lee Yoo-il, Ssangyong’s chief executive officer, told reporters that his company will hold a board of directors meeting later this month to discuss an investment decision meant to develop new vehicle models.Lee did not disclose details of the planned investment.His comment came
Feb. 5, 2013
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Toyota, Ford lead U.S. sales gains as autos fuel growth
Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. led the four largest automakers by U.S. sales in reporting January gains that topped estimates, as buyers return to showrooms to begin a fourth consecutive year of growth.Toyota’s deliveries of cars and light trucks surged 27 percent and Ford’s climbed 22 percent, while General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC sales each rose 16 percent, the companies said Friday. Industrywide light-vehicle sales increased 14 percent, according to researcher Autodata Corp.,
Feb. 3, 2013
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Hyundai, Kia post record monthly sales in China
South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Sunday they have posted monthly record sales in China in January helped by the growing popularity of their new models.Beijing Hyundai Motor Co. and Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motor Co., the South Korean automakers’ China units, sold 163,090 units last month, up 66.4 percent from a year earlier.The total breaks down to 107,888 units for Beijing Hyundai and 55,202 units for Dongfeng Yueda Kia.The number outperforms the previo
Feb. 3, 2013
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Mercedes takes early luxury lead after outselling BMW
Mercedes said it sold 22,501 vehicles last month, its best January, helped the C-Class sedan’s 11 percent climb to 7,214. Brand sales for BMW increased 0.7 percent to 16,513 units, boosted by a 56 percent gain for its X5 sport-utility vehicle. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus rose 32 percent to 16,211, led by the ES sedan, which more than doubled to 5,186 deliveries. The two German automakers are vying to be the top luxury- auto brand in the U.S. after outselling Lexus the past two years. BMW vaulted
Feb. 3, 2013
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Smaller carmakers bet big on compact SUVs
With the almost 80 percent market dominance of Hyundai and Kia cars still intact and foreign car brands aggressively expanding their local presence, the nation’s smaller carmakers ― GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motor ― are all pinning high hopes on a niche segment: compact sport utility vehicles. Amid the growing acceptance of small-engine, fuel-efficient vehicles, the market for smaller SUVs has been surging globally in recent years.GM Korea, whose global car sales last month
Feb. 3, 2013
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GM mulls Brazil options with CEO’s global reshuffling
As General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson works on a global corporate reorganization, the decisions he faces are playing out in one of the company’s most important emerging markets: Brazil. The automaker is evaluating how it will structure management in the country after the former president of GM Brazil, Grace Lieblein, switched to head of global purchasing in December. GM is holding off on replacing her as it determines what kind of role the person will have, said Jaime Ardila,
Jan. 27, 2013
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Jaguar bets on China to defray royalty payments
Jaguar Land Rover Plc, the luxury unit of India’s biggest automaker, is betting surging sales in China will help it defray royalty payments triggered by the company setting up factories outside the U.K. Jaguar is liable to pay royalties to Ford Motor Co., which sold the brands to Tata Motors Ltd. in 2008 for $2.5 billion, for use of the platform required to make its best-selling cars when manufactured outside the U.K., it said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Jan. 23. The unit of Mumbai-based Tata
Jan. 27, 2013
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Camry drives Toyota toward revival
An hour before the awards ceremony was set to begin, Toyota Korea was informed that its Camry would be crowned the 2013 Korea Car of the Year. It was a stunning feat for a foreign brand ― it was unprecedented for an imported car to grab the honor ― and especially for Toyota which had stood resilient against the widespread doubt that had shrouded the release of the vehicle last January. Toyota had pretty much known that its hybrid compact Prius would win the “green car” award, but did not expect
Jan. 27, 2013
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Kia sees fall in Q4 profit on stronger won
Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest automaker, said Friday that its 2012 earnings climbed 9.8 percent from a year earlier thanks to steady sales in overseas markets.Net profit reached 3.86 trillion won ($3.6 billion) last year, compared with 3.52 trillion won for a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.Sales rose 9.4 percent on-year to 47.2 trillion won in 2012, and operating profit also climbed 0.7 percent to 3.5 trillion won.For the fourth quarter of last year, Kia’s
Jan. 25, 2013
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Female vice president named GM Korea CFO
GM Korea Co., the local unit of U.S. General Motors Co., said Wednesday that a female vice president has been named its chief financial officer.Minerva Matibag, currently the CFO for GM’s Brazil unit, will also be in charge of finances for the firm’s operations in Vietnam and Uzbekistan, GM Korea said in a statement. The first woman CFO of GM Korea will start her job on Feb. 1, the company added.The Filipina started her financial career at GM’s Asia Pacific office in 1997 and went on to financia
Jan. 23, 2013
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Korean-brand cars sales jump in China this month
HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Sales of South Korean-brand passenger cars soared more than 30 percent in the first half of January from a month earlier, partly thanks to weaker shipments of rival Japanese brands, a market report showed Monday.During the first two weeks of January, South Korean cars sold in China numbered 6,646 units, up 31 percent from the same period a month earlier, according to the report by investment bank JPMorgan. South Korean carmakers’ market share was estimated at around 13.
Jan. 21, 2013
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U.S. back-up camera rule to double auto LCD demand
Shipments of liquid crystal displays for use in cars will almost double by 2016 from 2012 levels, as an expected mandate in the U.S. for rear-view cameras in autos boosts demand, researcher IHS forecast. Deliveries of full-color LCDs used in autos will reach almost 117 million units by 2016, up 89 percent from 2012, El Segundo, California-based IHS said in a report dated Jan. 17. Each year sales will grow between 15 percent and 23 percent, with shipments crossing the hundred-million-unit mark in
Jan. 20, 2013
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The beauty within the beast
The Korea Herald, in cooperation with carmakers, offers test-driving experiences to executive officials at Korean or multinational companies here. The opinion below is the author’s own. For any inquiry into this column, please contact jylee@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.If you perceive driving in big cities as negotiating an asphalt jungle, the BMW X5 is definitively the king of beasts.Snow, ice and subzero temperatures are weather conditions utterly foreign to my Caribbean background, where the elements
Jan. 20, 2013
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Mercedes-Benz, BMW getting on front-wheel-drive path
For decades, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have made rear-wheel drive central to their definitions of performance and luxury, even as the rest of the industry embraced front-wheel drive long ago.But both German marques, among the last holdouts, are about to cave.Just before the Detroit auto show last week, Mercedes-Benz showed off the CLA 250, a compact, four-door coupe, the first front-wheel-drive car bearing the brand’s three-pointed star logo. BMW also said at the show that it plans to offer front-wh
Jan. 20, 2013
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Korean recipe for smallest Chevy
General Motors, whose typical cash cows include trucks and sport utility vehicles, is profiting recently from a long-ignored segment ― the mini city car.With higher gasoline prices and growing appetite for smaller cars, the U.S. auto giant last year newly added the Spark mini car to its Chevrolet global lineup.The Spark, overcoming earlier skepticism among GM executives and dealers, sold 12,385 vehicles in the six months up to December. The researcher IHS Automotive forecasts the sales figure co
Jan. 20, 2013
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Super hero-themed vehicles promote fighting hunger
Two super hero-themed vehicles at the auto show in Detroit are there for more than just their flashy looks.The Batman-decorated Kia Optima and the Green Lantern-wrapped Kia Soul are at the South Korean automaker‘s exhibit to promote an effort to fight hunger in Africa. Features include Batman symbols inside and outside on the Optima, and the Green Lantern’s symbol on the Soul‘s wheels.The vehicles were created as part of a partnership involving DC Entertainment. The ``We Can Be Heroes’‘ effort i
Jan. 16, 2013
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Mercedes-Benz recalls 425 cars for defective air hose
Mercedes-Benz Korea is recalling over 400 diesel vehicles in South Korea for a defective air hose that could crack, causing the vehicle’s engine to stop operation, the Transportation Ministry said Monday.The recall affects 181 units of the C220 CDI and 244 units of the E220 CDI, both produced between Aug. 20, 2011 and Dec. 12, 2011, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.The ministry said the vehicles’ air intake hose may crack, which could limit the engine’s output or
Jan. 14, 2013