Category: Korea-Business

The Korean defense industry has definitely come a long ways the past 25 years:

Defense News released the list of the top 100 defense firms, including Hanwha, LIG Nex1, Hyundai Rotem and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). Four American firms, Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, took the top four spots.

Hanwha ranked 16th with its 2025 defense revenue totaling about US$10.44 billion, up from 22nd place in last year’s list.

LIG Nex1 took 52nd place with defense

revenue totalling about US$3.03 billion, up from 53rd place, while Hyundai Rotem ranked 61st, up from 67th place. KAI ranked 74th, down from 62nd place.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

For those about to exit service and have served in Korea, this may be an opportunity worth checking out:

“In recent years, the number of Korean companies expanding into the U.S. has increased significantly and demand for local workers has risen rapidly, particularly in advanced industries such as semiconductors and batteries,” Lee told The Korea Times. “But one of the biggest difficulties these companies face is securing local workers.”

That prompted KCCI to look toward U.S. service members who had served in Korea — a group that could offer Korean employers both professional skills and firsthand familiarity with Korean culture and workplace practices.

“They understand Korean culture and the business environment through their time serving in Korea, and their military careers have equipped them with responsibility, leadership and teamwork,” said Lee, who is also a vice chairman of SK Group.

“We saw a clear potential to connect the workforce needs of Korean companies in the U.S. with new career opportunities for service members leaving the military.”

KCCI signed an agreement with the foundation in September last year to support USFK personnel transitioning to civilian careers. The online platform was completed in November and officially launched in March.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know if this is going to work because Trader Joe’s has some significant loyalty from its customers that HomePlus has likely lost a lot of:

Embattled hypermarket chain Homeplus is pinning its revival on a new type of store modeled on US grocery chain Trader Joe’s, a leap of faith that has stirred both hope for a business remade and skepticism that a company on the edge of bankruptcy has the footing to pull it off.

Homeplus laid out the plan last week, after the Seoul Bankruptcy Court extended its rehabilitation deadline to Sept. 4. Once 200 billion won ($136.8 million) in debtor-in-possession financing arrives, the retailer intends to reopen all 67 temporarily shuttered stores, converting them into single-floor locations of roughly 3,305 square meters centered on food, private-label goods and everyday essentials.

Taking cues from the US grocery chain’s smaller-format stores, which stock roughly 4,000 items compared with the 30,000 to 50,000 typical of a conventional hypermarket, Homeplus hopes a leaner assortment weighted toward its private label, Simplus, will cut procurement and inventory costs.

“Trader Joe’s is a private-label-focused supermarket selling primarily food and daily necessities in optimally sized stores, where more than 80 percent of the products sold are its own brands,” the company said in a statement.

As appealing as it sounds, Homeplus’s shot at replicating the Trader Joe’s model depends on more than store format, analysts say, with the US chain’s success owing to a combination of strong product curation, brand loyalty and consumption patterns unique to the American market.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is some really bad luck that may ultimately cost Hanhwa Ocean hundreds of millions of dollars in losses:

Hanwha Ocean’s liquefied natural gas carrier / Courtesy of Hanwha Ocean

Hanwha Ocean is saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in financial burden, as a fleet of six icebreaking liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers remain undelivered at a domestic shipyard due to sanctions on Russia’s Arctic project, according to industry sources and a report.

The specialized vessels, built for Moscow’s high-stakes Arctic energy expansion venture, have turned into a costly asset for Hanwha Ocean, leaving the Korean shipbuilder with few viable options beyond waiting indefinitely for new buyers or selling the ships at steep discounts.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty amazing how stock markets continue to set new highs despite the oil disruptions in the Middle East:

South Korean stocks opened at a fresh record high Monday as investor appetite for tech shares helped offset uncertainty surrounding negotiations between the United States and Iran over a peace agreement.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 120.03 points, or 1.42 percent, to 8,596.18 as of 9:15 a.m., continuing its upward momentum after opening at a fresh high.

The KOSPI closed at a record high of 8,476.15 on Friday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that according to the article that Samsung employees have seen their average pay rise by 25% since last year and want to go on strike now for even more pay:

Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seocho District, southern Seoul / Yonhap

The estimated average monthly pay for Samsung Electronics employees reached 12 million won ($7,966) in the first quarter of this year, analysis showed Tuesday, as the company’s unionized workers moved closer to a possible strike over performance bonuses.

The Korea CXO Institute released its report, titled “Analysis of Estimated Average Employee Pay at Samsung Electronics in the First Quarter of 2026,” on Tuesday, estimating the average first-quarter compensation per employee at roughly 36 million won.

This figure amounts to about 12 million won per month for the tech giant’s 125,000 domestic employees, representing a more than 25 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea’s defense industry needs to send Putin a gift basket because the war he launched against Ukraine has led to strong growth in weapon sales to European nations:

Finland has decided to additionally introduce K9 self-propelled howitzers. Finland introduced 96 K9 self-propelled howitzers in 2017 and is expected to operate a total of 208 units by introducing an additional 112 units in this second phase.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced on the 9th that it had signed a second export contract for K9 self-propelled howitzers worth 546 million euros (approximately 940 billion Korean won) with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Finnish Ministry of Defence in Helsinki, Finland. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration stated, “The additional contract was decided after the Finnish military tested the K9 self-propelled howitzer in actual operations for several years and confirmed its exceptional mobility and firepower even in harsh Nordic environments, such as extreme cold and heavy snow.” The second-phase contract volume is planned to be delivered in full by the early 2030s.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Despite the most recent Dokdo nonsense, Korean consumers do not seem to car as they continue to buy Japanese beer:

Driven by younger consumers who focus on what they buy rather than past grievances between Korea and Japan, Korea’s imports of Japanese beer hit an all-time high of 119.2 billion won ($78.94 million) last year. The record surge suggests the 2019 ‘No Japan’ boycott has faded amid a thaw in relations and a sharp rise in tourism. 

The shift is evident at the retail level. When Sapporo Beer opened its first official outlet in Korea in Seongsu, eastern Seoul, last December, the venue was crowded with visitors. Younger consumers willingly paid 9,000 won for a glass — 30 to 60 percent higher than domestic options and nearly twice the price of some Korean beers.

“The foam is soft and the mouthfeel is different,” a woman in her 30s who visited the store with a friend said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if the government is going to reimburse these petrol stations if they are forced to sell gasoline at price that is not profitable for them:

Kim Yong-beom (L), the presidential chief of staff for policy, explains the outcome of President Lee Jae Myung’s meeting on the Middle East during a press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on March 9, 2026. (Yonhap)

The government plans to take steps to implement a capping system on local fuel prices this week, a senior presidential adviser said Monday, shortly after President Lee Jae Myung called for a swift launch of the system to contain a jump in gas prices as the U.S.-led war with Iran has intensified in the Middle East. 

Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, told reporters that specific measures were discussed at a meeting with relevant mininstries to “implement the price cap system to prevent abnormal pricing of petroleum products and improve price predictability.”

If implemented, it would mark the first time since 1997 that South Korea has enforced the system, using a provision in the Petroleum Business Act that allows the industry minister to designate a maximum sales price when oil prices fluctuate sharply and threaten economic stability.

Earlier in the day, Lee told an interministerial meeting that a swift implementation of fuel price cap is needed as the price of Brent oil to surge through US$100 per barrel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.