LTW - Pro-NK Critics, Electricity Hike, & Japan pays damages

1. National
1) Pro-North Korea followers criticized
President Lee Myung-bak made criticism against those in South Korea who exhibit blind support for Kim Jung-un regime. In his radio address, Lee accused North Korea for denying its responsibilities for the 1983 bombing in Myanmar and the 2010 sinking of a South Korean naval ship, and said he is even more worried about some South Koreans who blindly support the North positions. Lee’s comment came after a month long controversy over Mr.SK Lee and Ms.JY Kim, the hardcore North Korean followers in the Unified Progressive Party who became proportional lawmakers recently through rigged UPP’s internal nomination process. Koreans fear that the sensitive national secrets might be passed on to North Korea through Mr.Lee and Ms.Kim in National Assembly. Confronted with falling party approval rating, the leadership in UPP is demanding the two resign, but they are sitting like 10,000 ton rocks.

There are five subjects pro North followers are brainwashed to keep mum about; Succession of power from Grandpa Kim to father to grand son, self reliance doctrine, political system, human rights and Dear leader. The North followers are, however, instructed to sing at higher decibel than Luciano Pavarotti for any other issues that can threaten the stability of South Korea.

2) Conscripts during Japanese colony win damages
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of eight Korean men who for 17 years have sought compensation from Japanese companies that used them as forced laborers during its colonial era from 1910 to 1945. The court said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel the plaintiffs sued are still responsible for paying them wages and damages. It was a historic verdict as it was the first time Korean conscription victims won a court battle against their Japanese employers. Japanese government made an announcement soon after the ruling that the issue of conscripted laborers had been completely resolved in an agreement between South Korea and Japan in 1965. South Korean government is caught in dilemma as the ruling has no validity as Korea’s constitution states the conscription during the colonial days were illegal.

Japanese gave $800 million, a huge sum for Japanese economy at that time, to South Korea in 1965 as a compensation for the suffering of Koreans during the colonial days. This compensation was well spent as most of the money was invested for steel mills like POSCO, automobile plants like Hyundai, electric companies like Samsung and other infrastructures like Seoul-Busan highway. It could have been a disaster if the money were evenly distribute to each of the then 30 million South Koreans. What about compensation negotiation with North Korea? North Korea still got no compensation because of no diplomatic tie with Japan, and that’s one of the key reasons the North fell far behind the South even though it was much more affluent than South Korea until the early 70’s.

2. Economy
1) Electricity price to be hike to dampen its usage
With demand for electricity surging to the temperature rising up, the government is considering the hike of electricity price by 5 percent for both households and industries. The government said it will try to collect 400,000 more kilowatts from private companies’ generators, but it would be too small for the 4.8 million KW more demand expected this summer than last year. Thanks to the lowest electricity price among OECD nations, $0.058/kWh in Korea compared to the most expensive Italy’s $0.258, the average Koreans consume 9,510 KW a year while the OECD average was 8,272 KW in 2010.The government is trying to find ways to curb the reckless consumption of electricity, like air conditioning in the open area. Seoul city is enforcing “short pants, no ties” dress code during the summer.

Korea has to import 100% of petroleum to run the power plants, and its price keeps increasing. It is thus natural that the electricity price goes up, but the government is hesitant because of possible complaints from the people who are used to sweet candies for too long. A Korean saying has it that good medicine tastes bitter, and Koreans need to practice the proverb. More so with Greeks these days.

3. Auto Industry
1) Hyundai retorts against media report on zinc plate steel sheet
Hyundai said it is using the zinc plated steel sheets to build the chassis of cars for both domestic and export from 2006. Hyundai’s announcement came after a local newspaper’s critical report that Hyundai used low cost non zinc coated sheets for domestic models, but more expensive zinc plates for exports. Hyundai said, as of 2011, it has extended the use of zinc sheets, which are 15% more expensive than regular sheets, to include all of its vehicles even though local anti-corrosion requirement is not as strict as that of North America where much more corrosive calcium chloride is sprayed on the road due to heavier snowfalls.

Korean consumers have long suspected that Hyundai’s export models are better than domestic ones. They are not well aware that Hyundai or other car makers build their vehicles to the laws, regulations and the needs of the regions its vehicles are marketed. What’s the use of air conditioner for cars sold in North Pole?

2) Sonata hybrid wins top points in the U.S.
Hyundai announced its Sonata hybrid won the “top satisfaction” award from the U.S. based research company AutoPacific. According to AutoPacific, Sonata hybrid ranked #1 in the hybrid and electric-powered car segment. This car segment was first launched in 2010, with the Mercury Milan hybrid and Lincoln MKZ hybrid as the first winners. The AutoPacific Vehicle Satisfaction Award is an industry benchmark for measuring how owners feel about their vehicles after checking 48 categories covering safety, quality, performance and comfort.

One of the main reasons Hyundai products keep getting recognized by the media is its ever improving quality reputation. We recently had a quality problem that made engines a little bit noisy, and HMC quality engineers landed on Metaldyne Korea at the same speed my wife jumped into a Louis Vuitton store a while ago.

Regards,
H.S.

LTW - SK Nukes, Foreign Murderers, Yeosu Expo, & Generic Viagra

 
1. National
1) U.S. plans nuke bomb in South Korea
The U.S. House Armed Services Committee called for the re-introduction of nuclear weapons to South Korea. The U.S. pulled out nuclear weapons in South Korea in 1991 after two Koreas signed on the denuclearization of the peninsula. Obama being the supporter of negotiations to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons, it is doubtful Obama government would actually send the weapons to South Korea. North Korea carried out nuclear test in 2006 and 2009, and is thought to be preparing the third one.

The House Armed Services Committee cited China’s failure to curb North Korea in nuke bomb development as the reason for deployment. Very strange that the nation of 1.4 billion people can’t shut up a spoiled kid just across the border.
.
2) More foreigners commit murders in Korea
According to statistics by police, 7.9% of all murders in Korea are committed by foreigners even though foreigners account for just 2.8 percent of the population. Violent crimes such as murder or rape took 31% of the crimes committed by foreigners in Korea, compared to 22% of the crimes committed by local Koreans. Police plans to make more patrols in areas which have large foreign populations.

While most foreigners are law abiding in Korea, there are a few foreign gangs, mostly from Asian countries, who prey on those from their own countries. Good thing gun ownership is not allowed in Korea. It could have been a lot worse otherwise.

2. Economy
1) Expo grand opening in Yeosu
Yeosu, a small sea port city in the southern tip of Korean peninsula with 300K people, began a 3 month journey of 2012 Yeosu Expo with the participation of 105 countries and an expected crowd of 100,000 visitors a day. CNN named it the top place to visit in 2012, and Lonely Planet described the Yeosu Expo as one of the top things to do this year. This is the 2nd Expo in Korea after Daejeon Expo in 1993.

I am interested in visiting Yeosu, but, my nightmare in Universal Studio in Orlando, Florida in 1991 still haunts me. I had to wait 3 hours in line for a damn 5 minute E.T. ride.

2) Korean firms to market generic Viagra
As Pfizer’s patent on Viagra expires this month, 15 local pharmaceutical firms are launching generic versions of Viagra with 28 different product names. They are about one-third cheaper than the original. Since its debut in Korea in 1999, a total of 36 million pills of Viagra have been sold, and many more fake Viagra smuggled from China.

Viagra is to Korean herb medicine doctors what KFC is to chickens. Korean herb doctors prescribe and sell various herb extracts for stamina, but the extracts usually require months of intake to take effect. The survival of herb doctors now depends on how soon they can locate a super herb in the forest that turns a sponge into a rock in less than 30 minutes.

3. Auto Industry
1) Hyundai Beijing under fire
The production at Hyundai’s Beijing No.1 plant came to a complete stop as a fire broke out at its paint shop on May 8. The fire was put out within two hours without any casualties. There was a fear that some 1,300 units a day production of Accent, Elantra and Sonata from the No.1 plant would be down for weeks, but Hyundai made it in three days. How? Hyundai sent the vehicles from welding shop in No.1 plant to the paint shop in No.3 plant 30km away like piggyback on the trucks, and transported painted bodies back to the assembly shop in No.1 plant. The new No.3 plant was going to be fully operational in July, but Hyundai is using its paint shop many weeks in advance.

This is the second fire incident this year that threatened Hyundai’s global production. The first was in Georgia in March when one of its interior supplier’s plant got on fire. It happened just three days after I made a trip to Atlanta. The Beijing plant’s fire broke out just a week after my another trip to Atlanta late April. Hyundai just banned my further trip to Atlanta indefinitely.

Regards,
H.S.

LTW - Brotherly Love, Gaga over Gaga, Mad Cow, & K9 Debut

1. National

1) A touchy Canadian brotherly love
The family of a Canadian Korean War veteran Archibald Hearsey who died last year will bring his ashes to Korea to his final wish to be buried with his elder brother Joseph Hearsey who has been buried in Korea since 1951 when died during the war. Born in Ignace, Ontario, in 1929, Archibald was sent to Korea in Dec, 1950. His one year older brother Joseph was concerned about the safety of his younger brother, and joined the same battalion as his younger brother on Jan 6, 1951. The two brothers fought in Korea, Joseph in the front line and Archibald at the rear, but Archibald was never informed his elder brother was in the same battalion. In Oct, 1951, Joseph died at a battle in Gapyeong in Gyeongido Province, and it was only then Archibald learned his brother was fighting in the same battalion in Korea. The upper photo is Joseph, and the lower one is Archibald.

1. National
1) A touchy Canadian brotherly love
The family of a Canadian Korean War veteran Archibald Hearsey who died last year will bring his ashes to Korea to his final wish to be buried with his elder brother Joseph Hearsey who has been buried in Korea since 1951 when died during the war. Born in Ignace, Ontario, in 1929, Archibald was sent to Korea in Dec, 1950. His one year older brother Joseph was concerned about the safety of his younger brother, and joined the same battalion as his younger brother on Jan 6, 1951. The two brothers fought in Korea, Joseph in the front line and Archibald at the rear, but Archibald was never informed his elder brother was in the same battalion. In Oct, 1951, Joseph died at a battle in Gapyeong in Gyeongido Province, and it was only then Archibald learned his brother was fighting in the same battalion in Korea. The upper photo is Joseph, and the lower one is Archibald.

Some 26,000 Canadians fought for South Korea during the Korean War, and 516 of them were killed in action. Koreans thanked Canadian contribution by buying Canada’s Cando nuclear reactors and building a car plant in Bromont near Montreal where I used to work for five years from 1988 to 1993. My wife and I thought about what else we could to for Canada at that time, and worked as a team to add two more boys in Canadian population.

2) Protest over Lady Gaga’s performance in Seoul
Lots of applause and boos at the same while Lady Gaga kicked off her “Born This Way Ball” world tour in Seoul in front of 45,000 fans, despite a ban on those under 18 and protests from Christian groups who criticized the self-dubbed “Mother Monster” is obscene. Korean government implemented an adults-only rule, and Lady Gaga referred it as “I was told that your government decided my show should be 18 or over. So I’ll make sure it will be.” Concerned about Lady Gaga’s advocacy of homosexuality, profanities and grotesque costumes, the Christian groups threatened a boycott against Hyundai Card, which was a main sponsor for Lady Gaga show in Seoul.

I being an old man, this was the first time I heard about Lady Gaga. Paris Hilton must be in fear that she has a tough challenger for her world championship in obscenity.

2. Economy
1) Venezuela opportunities for Korean companies
The Ministry of Knowledge and Economy signed four Memorandum of Understandings and one Letter of Intent with Venezuela’s energy and oil ministry. Korea will pursue five energy and infrastructure projects in Venezuela worth U$1.1 billion. The deals cover the building of pipe lines, storage and harbor facilities for oil, a petroleum coke power generation and an oil refinery project and petrochemical facility. Hyundai Construction & Engineering, Daewoo Construction, GS Construction and SK Construction are the Korean companies working on these projects.

Venezuela is special to me. I stayed in Barcelona in Venezuela for a month in March 1996 to support a local car maker to launch Hyundai Excel. I took time off on a weekend to tour a wild forest, and got checked by the local police for not keeping a passport which I left at my hotel. I was put in a prison for five hours until a hotel boy brought my passport from my jacket in the hotel. When I returned to hotel, I found my $2,500 gone. I reported it to the hotel, and went to the police for questioning. I found my face in the front page in the local newspaper the following day. The experience in Venezuela was special to me as it gave me the first time ever experience in jail, and my successful debut in the media.

2) U.S. beef sales slips with the outbreak of mad cow disease
Sales of U.S. beef are falling fast at the news of mad cow discovered in California on Apr 24 as consumers have some worms over the safety of U.S. beef despite the government’s efforts to reassure the public by dispatching inspectors to the U.S. E-Mart, Korea’s largest wholesaler, said the sales of U.S. beef dropped 66.8% from last Thursday to Sunday compared with the same three-day period one week earlier. Leftist groups lost no time to use it as an opportunity to promote their causes, and already began to hold candle light protests to stop the U.S. beef import, much like what they did exactly four years ago. Korea is the fourth largest importer of U.S. beef after Canada, Mexico and Japan.

No doubt mad cows are very dangerous to the health of people. More dangerous are those protesting mad people whose logic circuits and common sense in their brain went haywire pretty badly.

3. Auto Industry
1) Money keeps coming, coming and coming to Hyundai
Hyundai Motor announced that its Q1 earnings jumped 30.6% from a year earlier thanks to strong sales overseas. Net profit reached 2.45 trillion won ($2.15B) in Q1, compared with 1.87 trillion won a year earlier. Sales went up 10.6% on-year to 20.16 trillion won in the 3 month period, with operating profit jumping 24.9% to 2.28 trillion won. Overseas sales reached 917,879 units in the same quarter, up 22% from the same period last year. Domestic sales slipped, though, down 7.1% on-year to 154,800units. Hyundai’s sister Kia also made record net income of 1.2 trillion won ($1.1B) in Q1.

Reflecting the high profit, Hyundai shares hit all time high of 272,500 won per share on May 2. It was around 100,000 won just two years ago. My wife bought a few Hyundai shares in April 1999 at around 10,000 won. She still keeps Hyundai stocks, and plans to sell lunch tickets with her at 10 times higher price than Warren Buffett’s lunch.

2) Kia debuts K9 luxury sedan

Hyundai-Kia Chairman Chung Mongkoo proudly unveiled Kia’s new K9 luxury sedan at Hyatt Hotel in Seoul. Mr.Chung said all state-of-the-art technologies are in K9 for the safety and convenience of drivers. The K9 shares the same platform with Hyundai Equus, but is 7cm shorter for more dynamic look. It is equipped with head-up displays that enable driving data displayed on the window, a radar-based blind spot detection device and electronic shift lever, all of which are not available in more pricy Equus. The K9 is powered by 3.3L and 3.8L V6 engines, with the price tag ranging from 53 million won ($46.5K) to 86 million won ($75.6K). Kia expects K9 compete against BMWs and Mercedes.

Kia plans to market K9 overseas from the 2nd half this year, but Kia’s marketing people are in headaches as foreigner consumers might think K9 is a nice bus for a highway drive. K9? Canine? Greyhound!!!!

Regards,
H.S.

LTW - Rocket Fail, Japanese Flocks, 'Note'able Sales, & Renault Problems

1. National

1) N.Korea’s rocket launch fails

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s ambitious plan got botched. North Korea acknowledged 4 hours after the launch on April 13 that the Kwangmyungson-3 satellite did not succeed in reaching orbit. South Korea, Japan and the U.S. urged North Korea to stop the launch as they believed it was just a cover for long range missile test. Barack Obama said he would fold the promised food support for North Korea as Kim Jong-Un broke the promise not to fire the rocket in return for the food plan. The U.N. Council is expected to announce a resolution to condemn North Korea, this time including N.Korea friendly China.

North Korean scientists will investigate why the rocket failed to reach the orbit, and will eventually figure out there was lack of power from the rocket booster. Kim Jong-Un will thus meet with CEO of Pfizer to beg for the donation of million tons of Viagra.

2) Ruling party wins majority in fierce parliamentary election

The ruling Saenuri Party managed to retain majority by winning 152 out of 300 seats. The main opposition Democratic United Party, which was expected to win the election due to public’s negative view on current Lee Myungbak conservative government, garnered only 127 seats. The hero, or heroine, was Park Geun-Hye, who fielded the election by crisscrossing whole South Korea as the front runner for the presidential election in Dec. She accused DUP for changing words as the opposition party is opposing the FTA with the U.S, and a naval base in Jeju Island, both of which were initiated while the opposition party was in power from 2003 to 2008.

Park was immensely helped by Kim Yong-min, a candidate in the opposition DUP, whose dirty comments 8 years ago in internet revealed just a week before Apr 11 election displeased many middle of the road voters. Here are a couple of Kim’s comments. “To reduce terrorism, a serial killer should rape and kill Condoleezza Rice.” “Major TV stations should air pornographic movies for two hours everyday to boost Korea’s low birth rate.” There were a variety of other lewd comments, but I would rather not mention here. Kim got defeated while the price of Dial soap went up 250% last week in Korea due to huge demand to wash Kim’s mouth.

2. Economy

1) Japanese flock to Busan

The office of Haeundae District in Busan said the number of Japanese households moving to Haeundae increased from 5 in 2009 to 39 in 2011. The office said 24 additional households moved to Haeundae from Jan to Mar this year. The office added the Japanese are moving to Haeundae to escape the fear of natural disasters like tsunami or Fukushima nuclear fallout to live in the area that has similar climate and is close to Japan geographically. To boot, the cost of an apartment is only 50% of what is in Japan, and other prices are also much cheaper than in Japan. Haeundae is welcoming the Japanese immigrants, and plans to provide free Japanese language legal advice as well as interpreters in hospitals and road signs in Japanese.

This is not the first time Japanese are coming to Korea in groups. The origin of rivalry between Korea and Japan started in 1592 when Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s forces landed in Busan. Japanese said they would leave Koreans alone if Korea opens the road to China so that the Japanese can invade China, then Ming Dynasty. Being a good friend of Ming Dynasty, Koreans told the Japanese to kiss my butt, and the Japanese did kick Korean butts. The coalition forces of Ming and Korea fought against the Japanese for 7 years in Korean peninsula and at sea, resulting in millions of casualties. This is the war North Korea often cites to compare their blood coalition with China during the Korean War in 1950. To Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, the U.S. replaced Japan.

2) Samsung #1 in Smartphone sales

According to Forbes, Samsung ranked #1 in smartphone market again, taking 28.2% of the global market, selling 41 million smartphones from Jan to Mar. Apple came 2^nd with 22.4% market share, or 32.6 million phones. Nokia and RIM(Blackberry) kept their 3^rd and 4^th position, but their market share kept shrinking, Nokia dropping to 8.65% from 12.5% and RIM to 7.6% from 8.6%. In the 4^th quarter last year, Apple took 23.6%, while Samsung trailed with 23.2%. The star product that turned Samsung #1 again was Galaxy Note, which has sold 5 million units globally since its debut in Nov last year.

I have a Galaxy Note, which is quite big with 145.8mm (5.74 in.) by 82.95mm (3.27 in.) in size, and took it to Metaldyne leadership meeting in Barcelona two months ago in February. My colleagues were really impressed. They wowed that I was carrying a cell phone that was bigger than me.

3. Automotive

1) Renault-Samsung Motors in trouble

While Hyundai and Kia are very busy with their production line running full capacity, RSM is taking too much of break time. To use up excess inventory caused by continuing drop in sales, RSM will suspend production at its plant in Busan from April 20. The car maker saw its domestic sales go down 41.7% to 4,788 from Feb to Mar, while its exports took a dive by 42.8 5 to 8,143 units. It has been struggling due to the poor sales of its large sedan SM7, which was launched in August last year. It sold only 500 units in March. RSM also began to close its dealer shops in Seoul to cut cost, so it is feared it may be the beginning of bad cycle.

The problem with RSM is that they do not have any advantage in the scale of economy. RSM has only one plant in Busan that can make max 300K units a year, and offers only three car models and one SUV as above pictures. RSM imports many parts from Japan which is no good especially when the yen is so high these days, and its models are Nissan or Renault design, which really do not appeal to Korean customers. A good example is SM7 which can not hold 4 golf bags, while most of the people interested in buying SM7 level cars play golf as often as Paris Hilton changes her boy friend.

2) 2012 MVMR to open on May 17 in Dearborn

When I joined Metaldyne in 1999 I thought Metaldyne’s headquarter in Plymouth Michigan was a Hollywood. There was a lady with a look of Liz Taylor, a good looking VP that resembled Tom Cruise, and a R&D director who wore Michael Douglas’s mask. However, no one perfectly matched John Malkovich than Jeoff Burris who was then head of engine products group in Metaldyne. We all know John Malkovich can make a horror movie himself without any makeup. A Perdue graduate, Mr.Burris worked as a purchasing director in Ford until he joined Metaldyne (then Simpson) in 1996. Mr.Burris left Metaldyne in 2003 to work in Magna, and started in 2004 his own Advanced Purchasing Dynamics which provides total service in purchasing sector. His APD successfully held its first Motor Vehicle Materials & Resins conference in 2011, and is hosting another 2012 conference on May 17 at Hilton Double Tree Hotel in Dearborn. (http://www.mvmrcon.com)

Exly

If you happen to meet with Mr.Burris at the MVMR event in Dearborn, please give him my best regards and make sure you tell him I compared him with Brad Pitt or Sean Connery, not Malkovich. Mr.Burris knows too much of my secret……

Regards,

H.S.

LTW - Summit, Dust, World Bank, & Overtime Cut

1. National
   1) Nuclear Security Summit held in Seoul

The 2^nd Nuclear Security Summit was held at COEX Center in Seoul, just 2 km from where I live, with the leaders of 53 nations attending the summit. While the leaders unanimously adopted a communiqué that encourages nations to take all possible steps and cooperate to secure vulnerable weapons-grade fissile material by 2014, critiques said no progress has been made in reality in terms of reducing nuclear materials and that the communiqué is no significant improvement over commitments made during the first one in Washington in 2010 where the U.S., Russia and China agreed to reduce nuclear materials equivalent to 20,000 nuclear weapons and actually lowered to 3,000. The third summit will be held in Netherland in 2014.

While in Korea for the summit, Obama made a visit to DMZ, gazing at North Korean soldiers a few hundreds meters away. Obama thus became the 4th U.S. president to visit DMZ after Ronald Reagan (1983), Bill Clinton (1993) and George W.Bush (2002). The U.S. solider next Obama was in efforts to make sure no microphone was turned on while Obama was pouring colorful F words at Kim Jong-un across the border.

  2) Yellow dust season started

Just as two Metaldyne engineers arrived in Korea for a meeting with Hyundai last Wednesday, the sky turned yellow as this is the time of year when yellow dust from Mongolia and China blow east to cover whole Korean peninsula. Concerns are the sandstorms are occurring more frequently as the regions that generate the yellow dust are experiencing increased desertification as a result of industrialization and logging. In the 80’s, yellow dust hit Korea for an average of 3.9 days, while in the 90’s, it jumped to 7.7. From 2000 to 2011, it increased to 11.8 days. The worst that I have seen was 2006 when most of the schools were closed for a couple days due to thick dust.

While Koreans suffer from sore throats due to jet stream blowing from China to Korea, Koreans should not complain too much about it. If the jet stream blows the other way around, Koreans would be soaked with nuclear dust from Fukushima by now.

2. Economy
 1) A Korean-American nominated as the head of World Bank

Koreans got excited at the news that Obama nominated Korean-born Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College, to lead the World Bank. Born in Seoul in 1959, Kim moved to the U.S. at the age of five, and got an M.D. degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard. Before going to Dartmouth in 2009, Kim was the director of the WHO’s HIV/AIDS department. While the new leader to replace current Robert Zoellick will be selected in the IMF meeting in April, the U.S. nominee gets the job traditionally. Kim arrived in Korea last week, and met with President Lee Myungbak.

It seems Koreans now have accomplished what Genghis Khan had once dreamed about 800 years ago as an Asian. Ban Ki-moon is leading the world politics as the leader of United Nations. Jim Yong Kim will dominate the world money market. Kim Jong-un scares the hell out of the whole world just by toying with nuclear missiles, to top it off.

3. Auto Industry
 1) Government push to cut overtime

According to OECD, Koreans are the busiest bees, working 2,193 hours a year, including overtime, as of 2010, becoming the only OECD nation in which people work more than 2,000 hours. Dutch people work 1,377 hours while industrious Germans toil 1,419 hours, just for comparison. To create more jobs under “job sharing” program, the government is modifying labor laws so that working on holidays is included in overtime as holiday working is currently not included in extended working hours. Under the current labor law, employees are to work maximum overtime of 12 hours a week. If the law is changed to the way the government wants, the companies either have to stop production on weekends or add third shift to run 4 days on 3 days off mode, hiring one third more work forces. Auto industry, which is running full capacity these days, has the most to lose if the new law is enacted.

While business leaders are dead against the new law as it would be a huge financial cost to add one third more people, the workers also do not welcome the new law as their income will be reduced without overtime. Here is what people in the auto industry say to the government. “You are helping me a lot if you do not help me.”

2) Fire in a supplier stops Kia Georgia plant

Kia’s West Point plant in Georgia had to shut down because of a fire at Daehan Solution’s plant nearby on Mar 17. The plant was manufacturing headliners, floor mats, and other noise absorbing materials for Kia’s Optima, Sorento as well as Hyundai’s Santafe. No casualties, but one of the two Daehan Solution’s plants were completely burned down. Daehan Solution’s solution was immediate airfreight of parts from its plants in Korea, and Kia’s Georgia plant resumed full operation last Monday, just a week after the fire. While the fire was a disaster for Daehan Solution and Kia, it gave some relief to other Hyundai and Kia suppliers who were bleeding from air freight cost due to tight production capacity.

  I fully understand the panic Daehan Solution employees had to go through from the fire as Metaldyne Korea had a similar disaster in Aug 2010 when the roof our plant collapsed from heavy rain. We had to work without roof for two months, covering the production line with giant tents as you see in the above pictures. We managed not to stop Hyundai production even a second, but most of our employees lost average 10% of their hairs from the stress. Our HR manager Ken Lee above was definitely the employee most stressed during that crisis.

Regards,

H.S.