HWANG & COMPANY, LTD.

Tel : +82-31-783-6130/1 

Fax: +82-31-783-6132 

E-mail: hwangnco@hwangnco.com    

Website: www.hwangnco.com

Korea Report - January, 2015.

Topics.

²  President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating plunged to below 30%.

²  An 18-year-old Korean student vanished in Turkey, for possible involvement with IS militant group.

²  Korean government raised retail prices of cigarette packs to KW4,500 ($4.07), up from KW2,500.

²  A total of 14 mil foreigners visited SKorea in 2014.

²  SKorea launched its own submarine force command to better cope with maritime security challenges.

²  NK proposed a halt to nuclear tests if USA suspended joint military exercises with Seoul, but USA rejected.

²  US President Obama signed an executive order imposing new economic sanctions against NK.

²  The SKorean government retains its GDP growth at 3.8% this year.

²  The nation’s current account surplus hit $89.4 bil last year, up 10.2% on-year.

²  The default rate of corp bills in SKorea hit 0.19% last year, the highest level since in 2001.

²  Profitability by SKorean businesses dropped to 5.5% on average last year.

²  Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of KW25 tril, 11.8% on-year.

²  LGE sold 60 mil smartphones in 2014, up 25% on-year.

²  Operating profit by SK Hynix came to KW5.1 tril ($3.87 bil) in 2014, up 51% on-year.

²  HMC and Kia sold a cumulative 90 mil cars in 50 years since its creation in 1965.

²  HMC’s new Sonata won the ‘2015 Best Economic Performance Award’ in USA.

²  Sales of imported cars in SKorea jumped 25.5% to 197,000 vehicles in 2014.

²  Hanjin Energy sold its stake in S-Oil worth KW1.98 tril ($1.83 bil) to Aramco’s overseas unit.

²  The net asset value of indirect instruments reached KW385.16 tril ($346.7 bil) at end-2014, up 14% on-year.

²  The average won-dollar exchange rate for 2014 stood at KW1,053.2 to the greenback.

²  The jobless rate stood at 3.4% in Dec, up from 3.1% in Nov.

²  Some owners are pushing for conversion of their bulkers to aframax and suezmax tankers.

²  Global NB orders totaled 1,749 ships (109.7 mil dwt, 39.70 mil cgt) in 2014, down 35% on-year.

²  As of end-last year, SKorea's order book stood on 32.23 mil cgt, down 3% on-year.

²  KOEXIM vowed to finance $205 mil to Dorian for 18 VLGCs worth $1.3 bil being built in Korea.

²  The Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency bought a 7.26% stake in HMD.

²  KOGAS firmed its order for 6 LNG carriers, 2 for SK-SHI and 4 for KLC/HMM-DSME.

²  HMM completed its self-rescue plan to generate KW3.3 tril ($3.05 bil).

--------------------------------------------------------------

Please open the PDF file for full report.