Category: Korea-Business

For anyone looking to make some easy money in Korea, get yourself some egg laying chickens that don’t have the bird flu virus because the price of eggs is skyrocketing:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday it is discussing with Korea ways for American egg producers to tap into the Korean market that is suffering from an egg shortage as a result of a massive outbreak of avian influenza.

Amid the rising egg prices due to the outbreak of bird flu that was detected in November, the department spokesperson said that the U.S. and Korea are “engaged in technical discussions to provide access for U.S. egg producers to the Korean liquid egg market.

“Imports from the U.S. could help limit escalating production costs for processed food manufacturers in Korea and shield consumers from soaring egg prices,” the official added.

He did not mention when the U.S. will start exporting eggs to Korea.

Starting Saturday, the Korean discount store chain Homeplus raised the retail price of 30 eggs by 9.6 percent to 7,990 won ($6.67) at its 142 stores. Homeplus has increased its egg prices five times in a month and retail prices have jumped 31.4 percent over the month.

The latest price hike by Homeplus came a day after its rival Emart increased the price of 30 eggs by 8.6 percent to 7,580 won.

Officials of the companies expect egg prices to go up again ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday later this month. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the Korean government has even dropped import tariffs against US eggs until June 30th.

I have always thought that South Korea is sitting on a massive real estate bubble considering all of its empty apartments that so many people have borrowed money invested in.  According to this article the debt problems in South Korea is far worse than just the real estate market:

One of the important aspects that gets missed about Korean exports is their overall lack of diversity. About 48 percent of all Korean exports consist of electronics and related components while 31 percent are transportation goods (cars, boats, and related parts). A game-changing shift in the playing field for any product area could spell a slow but steady downward spiral for the entire Korean economy. Even a 10 percent drop in exports would literally shrink the economy by 5 percent, costing tens of thousands of jobs that ultimately depend on export revenue, exacerbating the already high underemployment rate of 14 percent and youth unemployment rate of 9 percent.

With a retinue of Chinese firms like Huawei and Oppo hot on the heels of Samsung, a potential decline becomes even more plausible considering the fact that Korean corporate culture is not always the most favorable for fostering the development of next-generation ideas and technology, often the easiest (and sometimes only) way for technology companies to remain competitive. This lack of forward thinking is most striking in the clean energy field, where Korea has been completely left out of the latest developments, despite its global reputation for being a technology powerhouse.

Another key area of concern is corporate debt. South Korea’s total corporate debt is worth about 171 percent of its GDP. Although this high percentage is not unique to Korea (the U.S. and China have about 304 percent and 169 percent, respectively), Korea is more susceptible to adverse consequences for a number of reasons. The first is the high prevalence of “zombie companies,” corporate entities that have been unable to repay debt for at least three years running. It is estimated that about a quarter of all Korean corporate debt is held by zombie companies, unlikely to ever be repaid.  [The Diplomat]

You can read more at the link.

Another American fast food restaurant chain is coming to South Korea.  It will be interesting to see if Dairy Queen puts a Korean twist on to any of their food offerings:

The U.S. fast food chain Dairy Queen has signed on to expand into South Korea, industry officials said Thursday.

M2G USA Investment said it has signed an agreement with International Dairy Queen Inc., which owns the franchise, to open 50 DQ Grill & Chill stores here over the next five years.

International Dairy Queen is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway led by famous investor Warren Buffet. Dairy Queen, commonly known as DQ, is a chain of fast food restaurants serving hamburgers, ice cream and other frozen products, with some 6,000 locations worldwide.

A Korean foodservice company Food and Treat will handle operations of the local DQ locations.  [Yonhap]

For South Korea’s Samsung, 2016 was an explosive year. Literally. https://t.co/rtflTa81V3

— Scott Snyder (@snydersas) December 20, 2016

I have always thought that South Korea is an ideal location for electric cars to be sold considering the short distances that are driven in the country:

GM Korea, poised to launch the fully electric car Chevrolet Bolt EV early next year in Korea, confirmed Tuesday with the Ministry of Environment that its vehicle can travel 383 kilometers (239 miles) per charge.

It can now drive the longest distance with one full charge among the vehicles set to debut next year.

“Bolt EV is able to travel from Seoul to Busan with one charge,” said James Kim, president and CEO of GM Korea. “It is going to change the paradigm of Korea’s EV market.”

The retail price has not been revealed. Its U.S. price is an estimated $37,500 before tax incentives. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This will be a big change for the job hiring process in South Korea if this bill gets implemented, but it seems that face to face interviews will be the way for employers to get around the intent of this bill:

The South Korean parliament’s labor committee on Monday approved a bill which bans employers from requiring job seekers to provide a headshot and information such as their weight and height.

It also seeks to prohibit the “discriminatory” practice of requiring information about an applicant’s birthplace, religion, marital status, assets and family details on application forms.

Violators will be slapped with fines of up to 5 million won (US$4,275) under the bill proposed by Rep. Han Jeoung-ae of the main opposition Democratic Party.

The proposal calls for punishing acts of requesting and offering illegal favors, exerting undue influence and giving and taking gifts or cash in the recruitment process with fines of up to 30 million won.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This is probably a good decision because I can’t remember the last time I remember seeing a Grandeur on the road in the US:

Hyundai Motor Co. is considering suspending the sales of the Grandeur sedan, exported under the name Azera, in the United States, industry sources said Sunday, due to its sluggish sales there.

While Hyundai announced the launch of the sixth-generation Grandeur earlier in November, sources said the company would not introduce the model in the U.S. If South Korea’s top automaker makes that decision, it would mark the first time in 16 years for the Azera to leave the U.S. market.

Industry watchers said although the Grandeur stands as a major high-end sedan in the South Korean market, it failed to grab enough attention in the North American market, losing out to the popular Sonata and the premium Genesis models.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I don’t see how South Korea can be considered a low cost manufacturing country especially considering the KORUS FTA has made it cheaper for them to manufacture in the US compared to South Korea:

Trump hasn’t spelled out how he wants to rearrange NAFTA, but the basic idea is to encourage or compel more production in the United States, which would mean less production in places like Mexico. But that would be highly disruptive and would penalize American automakers more than their foreign rivals. Trump could probably rewrite the rules in a way that limits Mexican imports to the United States, for instance. But that doesn’t mean automakers would simply move Mexican factories north of the border. They might look for other low-cost countries instead, such as South Korea, India or China. The Trump administration could pursue trade restrictions on those countries as well, but that becomes a game of free-trade whack-a-mole in which the government is trying to tell multinational companies where to invest their money—hardly the lightly regulated pro-growth environment Trump says he wants to create.

If Trump tries to stop US automakers from producing in Mexico, that doesn’t mean he can stop foreign automakers from operating there. So the government would essentially be raising costs for American firms by forcing them out of Mexico, but not for their global competitors.  [Yahoo Finance]

You can read more at the link.

I can’t remember anything like this happening before with a major manufacturer stopping production of an electronic device due to safety reasons:

Samsung has permanently halted production and sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after failing to correct a problem that was causing the devices to burst into flames.

The loss of one of its flagship smartphones is a major embarrassment for Samsung , which was forced to recall 2.5 million Note 7s shortly after the device went on sale in August.

The South Korean firm attempted to fix the problem by switching battery suppliers and updating the smartphone’s software. Company executives issued a slew of apologies.

But when replacement phones were issued, a number of customers reported that those devices also caught fire, including one aboard a passenger jet.

Samsung on Monday advised all customers to stop using the phones, sending its shares tumbling by 8% in Seoul. The world’s biggest smartphone maker said Tuesday it was killing off the phone entirely.  [CNN]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Apple versus Samsung copyright battle:

Overturning an earlier decision, a U.S. appeals court on Friday reinstated a lower-court verdict that Samsung Electronics pay Apple US$120 million for violating three iPhone patents.

In February, a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled that Samsung did not infringe upon the patents on “quick links,” “slide-to-unlock” and “auto-correct” technologies, and therefore does not need to pay $120 million ordered by a lower court.

Apple appealed that decision, arguing that the panel relied on extra-record evidence “none of which, it said, was of record and that the panel appears to have located only through independent research,” according to court records.

On Friday, a full panel of judges at the same court accepted Apple’s appeal in a 8-3 decision.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but for Apple the $120 million is probably enough to pay their lawyer fees considering how long this fight has been going on.