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Tag: Korea

  • Lotte brings in The Conran Shop to Korea

    Lotte brings in The Conran Shop to Korea

    ondon-based high-end furniture and home furnishing store chain The Conran Shop will open its first South Korean outlet in the second half of next year in partnership with the country’s leading department store chain Lotte Department Store.

    Lotte Department Store said on December 13 it has signed a contract to run Korean stores of The Conran Shop with Conran Retail and Brand Holdings. They aim to open The Conrad’s first local outlet in the second half of next year on an area of 2,314 square meters in the affluent Gangnam district of southern Seoul.

    Founded by British designer Terence Conran in 1974, The Conran Shop is a leading luxury retailer offering various home interior products from some of the most iconic designers of the world. It now runs 10 stores in the UK, France and Japan.

    The partnership with The Conran Shop is part of Lotte Department Store’s push to bolster its living goods and home furnishing business at a time when the home interior market is burgeoning in the country.

    Korea’s major conglomerates have recently turned aggressive in expanding their presence in the home furnishing market that has rapidly grown since Swedish furniture and home furnishing giant IKEA landed in the country in 2014.

    Lotte Department Store expects the Conran Shop’s Korean operation will position differently from other home furnishing chains with its luxurious items and plans to add more the Conran Shop outlets in Korea later, according to a company official.

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  • Kakao postpones carpooling service

    Kakao postpones carpooling service

    Kakao Mobility announced las week that it would postpone the official launch of its carpooling service after a week of fierce protests from the local taxi industry. The Kakao affiliate started offering a beta version of the service last Friday that was made available to a randomly selected pool of users nationwide. On the same day, it declared that the official launch date of its carpooling service would be on Dec. 17.

    “After much consideration, we decided to postpone the official launch in order to listen and apply a wider range of opinions from taxi drivers, users and many others,” Kakao said in an official statement Thursday afternoon.

    But it did not specify when the official launch will be delayed until. The statement sparked rumors that this may be the start of Kakao indefinitely postponing the service’s official release, which the company denied.

    “What we know for now is that it’s not going to happen this year,” said a Kakao spokesperson. “But this doesn’t mean the delay is going to be an indefinite one. The exact date is still a matter of discussion.”

    The beta service will continue to be offered to random users selected regardless of age and region. Kakao explained that the beta service was being offered to a very limited pool of users, just enough to examine the technology and check the effect it may have on taxi drivers.

    The announcement comes six days after the beta service and the official launch date were released.

    The backlash from taxi drivers has been fierce, with widespread protests that culminated in a 57-year-old taxi driver setting himself on fire in front of the National Assembly in western Seoul on Monday.

    Two days later, a committee that consists of two taxi company associations and two taxi driver labor unions announced plans to stage a protest in Seoul on Dec. 20, with more than 100,000 people expected to attend. This would be the third protest targeted at putting a stop to carpooling services.

    Regardless of Kakao’s decision to postpone the launch, a source from the committee said there is no change to the plans for the protest.

    Taxi drivers also launched a sleep-in protest in front of the National Assembly starting from Wednesday, with members of the four organizations continuing their vigil in shifts through the night.

    Kakao, the local taxi industry and government officials have been in talks for more than half a year, but are still failing to agree on a solution to the carpooling service issue.

    Kakao wants to introduce a carpooling service during busy commuting hours, but drivers say that even if rides are limited to twice a day, they will still eat up around 59 percent of all taxi demand.

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  • Korea’s auto exports on the rise, but local industry still struggling

    Korea’s auto exports on the rise, but local industry still struggling

    Attractive prices and returns have seen the number of Chinese customers buying high-end apartments in HCMC soar this year. Duong Thuy Dung, senior director of real estate market research firm CBRE Vietnam, said at a recent forum that 31 percent of high-end apartment buyers in HCMC in the first nine months were Chinese. This figure increased from only 2 percent in 2016 and 4 percent last year.

    In the last two years, Chinese were sixth among all buyers, but this year, they have surpassed Vietnamese to rank first.

    Only 24 percent of high-end home buyers are Vietnamese, CBRE data shows.

    Stephen Wyatt, country head of property service firm JLL Vietnam, said the number of Chinese buyers has been increasing because Vietnam has an attractive price compared to other markets like Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

    Chinese people often compare prices in Vietnam with Shanghai when they buy properties, he said, adding that they hope to gain profit from higher property prices in Vietnam in the future.

    A high-end apartment in the city costs around $5,000 per square meter, but the same one in Hong Kong could cost four times, said Nguyen Khanh Duy, director of residential sales at real estate service provider Savills HCMC.

    Nguyen Hoang, director of research and development at real estate firm DKRA, said that the number of Chinese and South Korean buyers in HCMC started to increase last year.

    Chinese from Shanghai and Hong Kong are buying properties as investments (not to stay in). “Most projects that foreigners bought in the last two years are under construction,” he said.

    Other industry insiders said that the high returns that HCMC high-end apartments offer is attracting many foreign buyers.

    The rate of return is 5-6.5 percent in Thao Dien ward and Thu Thiem Peninsula in District 2, while in other Asian countries, this rate is only 3.7-5.2 percent, Duy said.

    CBRE senior director Dung added that it was not just Chinese, but foreign buyers in general who are showing an increasing interest in HCMC real estate.

    Dung said that each foreigner group has a different preference for high-end apartments. Customers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan prefer large-scale projects near the downtown HCMC.

    South Koreans like to buy apartments in the southern District 7 that hosts a large community of South Koreans, while Western buyers often look for a quieter lifestyle in eastern District 2.

    Dung said HCMC is estimated to receive 40,000 new apartments in the 2018-2020 period, 60-70 percent of these in the high-end segment.

    In the last three years 35,000 luxury apartments have come into the market, CBRE said.

    This is a major increase from 2012-2014 when fewer than 10,000 units were on offer, CBRE said.

  • Party supplies sales surge in South Korea

    Party supplies sales surge in South Korea

    Demand for party supplies from South Korean retailers is soaring as a growing number of people prefer to host end-of-year celebrations at home instead of going out. According to E-Mart, wine and cake sales at six stores in Daegu last month soared 18.9 per cent and 16.1 per cent, respectively, year on year.

    Frozen foods sales jumped 16.3 per cent compared to last year.

    More South Koreans are choosing to cook at home using a variety of home meal products, as so-called ‘meokbang’ (eating shows) and ‘cookbang’ (cooking shows) are sweeping the country.

    Lotte Department Store’s Sangin Branch in Daegu also saw its kitchenware sales increase by more than 70 per cent compared to last year.

    Suppliers are coming up with various promotions to capture the attention of end-of-year party throwers.

    Lotte Department Store’s Daegu Branch is offering discounts of up to 60 per cent on dinnerware and is showcasing a variety of props to help decorate the perfect party.

    Lotte Department Store’s Sangin Branch is also holding a promotion event for Christmas-themed tableware.

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  • Hyundai sets aside 1.67 trillion won to support its suppliers

    Hyundai sets aside 1.67 trillion won to support its suppliers

    Hyundai Motor Group has introduced a 1.67 trillion won ($1.49 billion) support program for small and midsized auto parts suppliers, the company said Thursday. As auto parts suppliers in Korea tend to be highly dependent on the performance of carmakers, the sluggish performance of Korea’s largest auto group by sales this year has been a major blow to their earnings.

    A report published by the Economic Research Institute run by the Industrial Bank of Korea earlier this year showed that 48 percent of domestic auto parts suppliers supply parts to a single carmaker and their business growth is highly dependent on the growth of that carmaker. Also, while carmakers have extra capital to respond to ups and downs in their earnings, small-sized parts suppliers are more vulnerable to changes in the market.

    Hyundai Motor Group said it will first create a 140 billion won fund for its suppliers and subcontractors. Suppliers will be able to borrow money at low interest rates and use it to stabilize their business or invest in research and development.

    Considering many suppliers lack liquidity due to the massive investment and costs incurred in early stage R&D and parts manufacturing, the group also said it will pay forward some of the cost incurred in those activities. For instance, part of the cost incurred to develop parts used in Hyundai cars will be paid by the carmaker at the beginning of development rather than after the finished product is designed. The auto group estimates its suppliers and subcontractors will receive roughly 1.46 trillion won in investment upfront over the next five years.

    Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and auto parts affiliate Hyundai Mobis are also creating a 15 billion won fund to provide emergency aid to suppliers.

    There is a special program for suppliers expanding facilities to support the mass production of Nexo, Hyundai’s fuel-cell powered vehicle. The group is planning on injecting up to 44 billion won into suppliers and subcontractors that expand investment into facilities for parts used in the Nexo next year.

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  • Samsung is No. 1 in world for R&D spending

    Samsung is No. 1 in world for R&D spending

    Samsung Electronics was the No. 1 investor in R&D in the world this year, according a report from the European Commission. The annual R&D Investment Scoreboard report released by the commission analyzes R&D indicators of top companies in the world, based on their most recent accounts and annual reports. The 2018 report studied 2,500 companies worldwide from 46 countries.

    Samsung Electronics invested a total of 13.44 billion euros ($15.2 billion) in R&D this year, an 11.5 percent year-on-year increase compared to last year’s report, when it took third place on the list. This is the first time a Korean company has come in first since the European Commission first published the report in 2004.

    Tailing Samsung in second place was Alphabet, Google’s holding company. It spent a total of 13.39 billion euros. Volkswagen was ranked third at 13.14 billion euros. The list went on to include Microsoft, Huawei, Intel and Apple, all having spent between 9.7 billion and 12.3 billion euros.

    Samsung was the only Korean company within the top 50 R&D spenders worldwide. However, the report showed that, in terms of the ratio of R&D investment to sales – which the report dubbed “R&D intensity” – Samsung fell behind other major companies higher up the list.

    The local company’s R&D intensity was 7.2 percent – lower than second rank Alphabet’s 14.5 percent and Chinese IT company Huawei’s 14.7 percent. It was slightly higher than Apple, however, which had a ratio of 5.1 percent.

    The report also showed that, apart from Samsung, Korea was falling behind in R&D investment compared to neighboring countries Japan and China.

    The 2,500 companies studied for the report had invested a combined 736.4 billion euros, with 14 percent of that total coming from Japan-based companies and 10 percent from China. The top contributors were the United States at 37 percent and the European Union at 27 percent.

    A total of 70 companies from Korea were included in the study. LG Electronics was the only other one mentioned by name, coming in third place in the “Top 3 companies by R&D for the main industries: Other” category after Japan’s Panasonic and Sony.

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  • Google Korea office raided by tax agency

    Google Korea office raided by tax agency

    The National Tax Service (NTS) launched an investigation into Google Korea on Wednesday, sending an official to secure accounting documents at the company’s office in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. The investigation is thought to be into YouTubers suspected of avoiding taxes, as NTS Commissioner Han Sung-hee previously promised during the National Assembly’s annual questioning session in October to take measures to “prevent tax evasion” by well-paid YouTubers.

    Commissioner Han revealed that the NTS had advised 513 YouTubers to pay income taxes in the past, and was open to launching investigations into those who have not declared taxes.

    The raid comes just a day after global IT giants like Google and Amazon were ordered to start paying 10 percent value-added tax (VAT) in Korea from next July.

    The National Assembly passed a bill to revise the country’s Value-Added Tax Act in a move to impose VAT on foreign IT firms, the Assembly announced Tuesday. Specifically, the revision means IT firms will have to pay 10 percent in taxes for revenue made from business-to-consumer services, which include online advertisements and cloud computing services.

    Also subject to VAT will be revenue made from online-to-offline services like hotel booking platforms that market online to raise sales in physical stores, as well as sharing economy services, which are spearheaded by companies like Airbnb. The revision will go into effect from July 1 next year.

    “We will continue discussing the issue of taxing business-to-business transactions between Korean and overseas firms, which could not be agreed on in this revision,” said Rep. Park Sun-sook of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party, who submitted the bill for the revision.

    Like in other countries, the issue of taxing global IT giants has been the subject of fierce debate in Korea. Politicians have long raised concerns over how little IT giants like Google are being taxed in Korea, while domestic IT firms have bemoaned how the “reverse discrimination” was allowing overseas competitors to thrive at the expense of domestic companies.

    Google Korea is estimated to have paid less than 20 billion won ($17.7 million) in corporate taxes in 2016, when it raised nearly 5 trillion won in revenue in Korea in the same year through the Google Play store and YouTube advertisements. In 2017, however, Naver, which earned slightly less at around 4.67 trillion won, paid a total of 423 billion won in taxes, or 20 times more than Google.

    Strengthening regulations on corporate taxes will be much more difficult to achieve than changing VAT rules, however.

    Current international agreements like the OECD Model Tax Convention and tax treaties protect enterprises from paying income tax to foreign countries if they do not have permanent establishments in those countries. Though the definition of permanent establishments is often questioned, by current standards, Korea is not home to permanent establishments of any of the major IT firms – they mostly operate small affiliates here and conduct most of their business online from headquarters in the United States and other countries.

    These global IT firms only need to fulfill the corporate tax requirements for revenues made by their Korean subsidiaries, which is not much.

  • Hyundai Motor bets 6.7 billion dollars on hydrogen cells

    Hyundai Motor bets 6.7 billion dollars on hydrogen cells

    Hyundai Motor Group said it will invest 7.6 trillion won ($6.7 billion) in fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) by 2030, betting big on hydrogen as the energy source for the future. The group announced what it called its “FCEV Vision 2030” on Tuesday, promising to build production capacity of 500,000 FCEVs yearly by 2030 to take the lead in the fledgling industry. It added that the investment will generate some 51,000 new jobs by 2030.

    As a first step, Hyundai Mobis, the auto parts and software affiliate of Hyundai Motor, held a groundbreaking ceremony for its second fuel cell stack factory in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on Tuesday.

    If the factory is completed in 2022, Hyundai Motor Group’s production capacity for fuel cell stack will expand from its current 3,000 units per year to 40,000 units.

    “Hyundai Motor Group will become the first mover in the new hydrogen society that will arrive soon,” said Chung Eui-sun, Hyundai Motor Group’s executive vice chairman, in a speech at the ceremony in Chungju on Tuesday.

    “The group plans to expand the fuel cell stack production capacity to 700,000 units by 2030, including for the 500,000 FCEVs we plan to make by that year.”

    The ceremony was attended by Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yung-mo, Hyundai Motor President Chung Jin-haeng and Hyundai Mobis President Lim Young-deuk.

    Hyundai Mobis’ Chungju plant is focused on producing parts for eco-friendly vehicles like hybrid and electric cars.

    Last year, it constructed a new section dedicated to making fuel cell stacks with a capacity of 3,000 units per year.

    The carmaker forecasts that hydrogen will be used as an energy source in shipbuilding, railways and forklifts in the future and said it would start a business supplying fuel cell modules to other companies. The additional 200,000 units of FCEV modules that are not used in Hyundai Motor’s own FCEVs by 2030 will be sold elsewhere, the carmaker said.

    Executive Vice Chairman Chung said the FCEV industry will become a new growth engine for Korea.

    “Ninety-nine percent of auto parts in FCEVs are made domestically,” Chung said, “which is why its growth will have big ripple effects on other companies related to the industry. Through co-investment with partner companies, [Hyundai Motor] will try to build new growth engine for Korea’s future car industry.”

    Currently, some 130 partner companies are providing parts for fuel cell stacks made by Hyundai Mobis.

    Hyundai Motor has been making hefty investments in FCEVs along with rival Toyota. It was the first carmaker in the world to make a mass-produced FCEV model in 2013 called the Tucson ix35. It launched a hydrogen-powered Nexo SUV early this year.

    Since last year, the carmaker has been chairing the Hydrogen Council, a global lobbying group. Other companies represented on the council include Daimler, BMW and Air Liquide.

    The Korean government plans to supply 16,000 FCEVs and build 310 FCEV charging stations by 2022. There are currently only around 10 stations available to the public in Korea.

    China plans to supply 1 million FCEVs by 2030 and construct 1,000 charging stations. Japan plans to supply 40,000 FCEVs by 2020 and build 160 charging stations.

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  • Grandeur is likely to be Korea’s 2018 best-selling car

    Grandeur is likely to be Korea’s 2018 best-selling car

    As a result of its successful attempt to attract younger drivers with a new design and cost effectiveness, Hyundai Motor’s large Grandeur sedan is likely to be the best-selling car in Korea for a second consecutive year. Its hybrid engine largely contributed to the triumph.

    The Grandeur IG sold a total of 102,682 in Korea units as of the end of November, becoming the first and only model this year to surpass the 100,000 mark.

    The sales figure fell slightly, however, compared to the 123,000 units sold last year during the same period.

    Hyundai Motor said the Grandeur’s hybrid engine towed sales for the model. In November, a total of 2,302 Grandeur Hybrids have been sold, the highest monthly sales since its launch.

    Closely trailing behind in second is Hyundai Motor’s large Santa Fe SUV, which climbed up eight spots from No. 10 last year.

    Last year, the Santa Fe sold a total of 54,334 units in Korea. After launching a fully revamped version early this year and riding on a global trend to prefer SUVs, a total of 98,559 Santa Fes have been sold this year, according to the carmaker.

    With the Grandeur pulling in the younger generation, its midsize Sonata sedan is losing ground.

    The Sonata, which was either the bestseller or runner up for more than five consecutive years, tumbled to the third spot last year among all passenger cars in Korea.

    This year, the midsize sedan tumbled to sixth, selling a little more than 60,000 units.

    The top 10 spots were all taken by either Hyundai Motor or its smaller affiliate Kia Motors.

    The other three Korean carmakers – GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and SsangYong Motor – struggled to sell their cars to Korean consumers. Internal issues and a lack of new vehicles has largely contributed to the automaker’s struggle.

    SsangYong Motor’s best-selling model was the small Tivoli SUV, which sold a total of 39,330 units as of the end of November. GM Korea’s best-selling car was the compact Spark, which sold a total of 34,616 units during the same period. For Renault Samsung Motors, which didn’t launch any new passenger car model this year, its best-selling model was the QM6 SUV, which sold a total of 28,180 units as of November.

    It was Mercedes-Benz’s year when it came to imports. The E300 4MATIC line topped the ranks as of the end of November, selling 8,336 units followed by the E300 trim with 7,816 units.

    In the third spot was Lexus’ hybrid ES300h, which sold 7,805 units. BMW’s 520d, which was the most popular import last year, was hurt by the burning engine crisis over the summer and fell to fourth spot with 7,668 units in sales.

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  • Renault to start making Twizy cars in Korea from next year

    Renault to start making Twizy cars in Korea from next year

    Renault Samsung Motors, the Korean unit of French carmaker Renault S.A., is planning to start producing the Twizy ultra-small electric car in its sole domestic plant next year, industry sources said Monday. Renault Samsung, Busan Metropolitan City, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy are expected to sign an initial agreement this month to begin manufacturing Twizys, which are classified as heavy quadricycles in some countries, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

    He said assembly will begin “sometime during the 2019” at the carmaker’s plant in Busan, some 453 kilometers (281.5 miles) southeast of Seoul.

    This year, Renault Samsung has sold most of the 1,000 Twizys that were produced in its parent Renault’s plant in Valladolid, Spain, and shipped to Korea, a company spokesman said.

    The company plans to roll out up to 15,000 Twizys annually for domestic sales and exports to Asian markets, another person familiar with the matter said.

    Renault Samsung didn’t confirm the plan.

  • Lotteria burgers get 2.2% more expensive

    Lotteria burgers get 2.2% more expensive

    Lotteria is raising burger prices. The fast food franchise announced Wednesday that it was going to raise the price of 11 of its burgers by an average of 2.2 percent. Its Teri Burger, for example, will now cost 2,300 won ($2.04), up from the original 2,000 won. The price of the Classic Cheese Burger will rise from 4,000 won to 4,200 won.

    “We have decided to increase prices due to economic factors, but hope to offer customers higher quality and service,” read a statement from the franchise.

    Cafe franchise Angel-in-us Coffee also announced it would raise prices of 17 of its beverages by an average of 2.7 percent, or 200 won. Both Lotteria and the cafe chain are operated by Lotte GRS, the food business subsidiary of Lotte Group.

    Angel-in-us cited higher prices of ingredients – like coffee beans and milk, as well as higher labor costs – for the beverage price hike.

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  • South Korea’s Kookmin Bank licensed to open Vietnam branch

    South Korea’s Kookmin Bank licensed to open Vietnam branch

    The State Bank of Vietnam has licensed South Korea’s Kookmin Bank to open a branch in Hanoi, the government said on Tuesday. The branch has a chartered capital of $35 million and the contract runs for 99 years, the government said in a statement.

    South Korea is the largest source of foreign direct investment in Vietnam and the Southeast Asian country’s second largest trading partner.

  • Emart goes digital in high-tech Uiwang store

    Emart goes digital in high-tech Uiwang store

    Emart is going fully digital with its brand new Uiwang branch that will open in Gyeonggi tomorrow. Innovative features of the Uiwang branch – the first Emart store to open in 30 months – include digital displays instead of paper signs and guide robots that can escort customers to desired products. The Uiwang store will span 9,917 square meters (106,745 square feet) across two basement floors in a commercial building.

    “We will introduce a revolutionary format of offline stores that breaks away from tradition in order to meet the challenges of our fast-changing era,” read an Emart report.

    Going paper-free is a big change that Emart hopes will both appeal to customers and help management.

    Price labels will be digitalized and controlled by a central server in the Uiwang branch, allowing store managers to display and change prices with unprecedented ease and speed. The new store will also install digital signage, or electronic displays, alongside elevators, moving walkways and cashiers instead of paper posters for advertisement and notices.

    “By minimizing paper usage, we can provide consumers with a unique shopping experience while practicing green management and boosting productivity,“ read the Emart report.

    The new Uiwang store will also be home to Tro.e, an autonomous robot equipped with a 27-inch touch screen that is capable of guiding consumers to desired products and making casual conversation. Like Pepper, a robot the company employed earlier this year at its Seongsu branch in eastern Seoul, Tro.e will only be available for a limited time on a test run at Uiwang.

    Emart developed Tro.e, named after the Swedish word tro, which means trust, together with Future Robot, one of the official robot providers for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

    The grocery section of the new store will only be located on the lower floor of the store, while the upper floor will host a variety of affiliated shops including Electro Mart, Pierrot Shopping, Daiz, Boots and a Kakao Friends Store.

    Emart will open a 660-square-meter “Culture Lounge” for customers to read books and purchase beverages.

    “We will continue striving to offer consumers a unique shopping experience with our distinctive products and digital shopping environment,” said a senior manager in charge of development at Emart.

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  • Huawei’s woes in U.S. give pause to Korea, too

    Huawei’s woes in U.S. give pause to Korea, too

    The arrest of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Canada has triggered alarms in the Korean telecommunications industry, especially after LG U+ moved onto a fifth-generation (5G) network this month that uses Huawei network devices.

    The Chinese telecommunications giant has maintained a sizeable influence since it first entered the Korean market in 2002. While it was originally focused on the cable infrastructure business, Huawei moved on to offering wireless telecommunications devices in 2007 as local telecommunications companies introduced third-generation wide-band code-division multiple access services.

    In 2013, Huawei received orders for fourth-generation 4G long-term evolution (LTE) wireless base stations from LG U+ for services in Seoul, Incheon, and areas in Gyeonggi and Gangwon.

    The 5G equipment market in Korea is estimated to be worth 10 trillion won ($8.89 billion).

    While Huawei is a leading supplier to the telecommunication industry, concerns about the security of its devices has held the company back. Only LG U+ decided to use Huawei equipment for 5G. Huawei has claimed that it had no such security problems in the 170 countries that it operates in and would follow inspection requests by the Korean government.

    LG U+ signed a deal with Huawei to introduce around 30,000 base stations in the Seoul, Incheon, and the Gyeonggi and Gangwon regions by next March. The deal is reportedly worth around 300 billion won, not including maintenance fees.

    The decision by Korea’s smallest telecommunications company made business sense as it used Huawei equipment for its 4G network.

    Huawei’s equipment, however, will not be installed in areas occupied by United States Forces Korea (USFK) such as in Pyeongtaek, Dongducheon, Yongin in Gyeonggi. The U.S. government has requested that Huawei equipment not be used out of concerns about a Chinese cyberattack. USFK has been suspicious about Huawei equipment. When LG U+ chose Huawei equipment for its 4G network, around 10,000 USFK soldiers switched carriers.

    The current situation has left LG U+ in a difficult position. Its deal with Huawei is already inked, and the 5G service works in sync with the existing 4G system, so it is impossible for the company to simply not use Huawei equipment.

    The recent banning of Huawei equipment by Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan, along with growing worries in Korea, places more pressure on the telecommunications unit.

    A senior LG U+ official expressed frustration at the current situation and the Korean government’s inaction.

    “Our government is just trying to not upset either China or the United States,” said the official. “Shouldn’t the government come forward and clear things up?”

    Meanwhile, the government maintains its stance that the selection of telecommunications equipment is an issue for companies to decide.

    “Inspecting security is the responsibility of the business operator. It is not appropriate for the government to take part in an area that a company should make a decision on,” said Park Jun-guk, an official at the Cyber Security Industry Bureau in the Ministry of Science and ICT.

    “[We] will, however, strengthen security inspections in the form of a technology advisory conference.”

    While 5G has stirred controversy, Huawei has an even stronger presence in the country with its cable and optical transmission equipment businesses. In the cable business, all three telecommunications companies, SK Telecom, KT and LG U+, are customers of Huawei.

    Huawei has also won orders from Koscom, a state-run financial IT solution company, and from electric utility Kepco.

    Last month, the Chinese company won an order with KT to connect the sales network of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and the National Livestock Cooperatives Federation worth around 120 billion won.

    According to market researcher IHS Markit, Huawei is the biggest global telecommunications equipment maker, with a market share of 22 percent. While Samsung Electronics holds a strong position in the Korean market, a 45 percent market share, it commands a paltry 4 percent share of the global market.

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  • Tourists from China are back to Korea, but not like before

    Tourists from China are back to Korea, but not like before

    Chinese group tours, which helped fuel local retail sector growth in recent years, have yet to make a full comeback despite the easing of restrictions by Beijing, Korean duty-free store operators said on Sunday. The assessment came as official data from the Bank of Korea showed that 475,000 Chinese nationals visited the country in October, up 37.6 percent from a year earlier.

    Local tax-exempted outlet operators like Lotte Duty Free and Shilla Duty Free, as well as the umbrella Korea Duty Free Shops Association (KDFA), said that most Chinese customers were individual travelers and so-called “daigongs,” rather than “youkers,” or group travelers.

    Daigongs are small-scale merchants who buy products here on behalf of customers back home.

    Chinese authorities clamped down on group tours to Korea in March 2017 after Seoul allowed the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system on its soil, despite objections from Beijing. China has since partially lifted restrictions, but the number of group tours has not returned to past levels.

    Lotte said that it had almost no youkers, who enter the country on a group visa, and that most shoppers were individual travelers or small merchants.

    It said that before the frictions caused by the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense’s deployment, there were 7,000 to 8,000 youkers daily at its main duty free store in downtown Seoul. This dropped to around 2,000 after the uproar and then to zero.

    Shilla said it did receive 820 youkers in October.

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