With the big five Korean chaebols still wrangling over terms of their restructuring and with the November 30 deadline just around the corner, the government has upped the pressure says it will press ahead with other antitrust charges if the companies do not implement reforms as promised. In the meantime Korean papers report that while Hyundai and LG are still in dispute over terms for merging their semiconductor operations there may be some good news around the corner for the country’s beleaguered chip makers. Korea’s top two semiconductor manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and LG, say they will maintain production right through the month rather than taking a week off as they’ve done each month since the beginning of the summer, indicating an improvement in market conditions. The papers stop short of suggesting a significant uptick in the market could make the merger of Hyundai and LG’s semiconductor operations unnecessary.
