▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six news items tailored to each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Smaller boards: Ahead of the revised Commercial Act taking effect on the 10th, which introduces cumulative voting at listed companies with total assets of 2 trillion won or more, companies have moved to cut the number of directors and adjust their terms. As the chances rise that candidates nominated by minority shareholders will win board seats, efforts to minimize outside influence are spreading.
■ New steel markets: Hyundai Steel (004020) is accelerating its push for new orders in advanced infrastructure — including AI data centers, semiconductor plants and power grids — beyond high-value automotive steel sheet, led by its Louisiana electric arc furnace mill (HPLS). With U.S. capital spending on AI data centers rising steeply, steel for power infrastructure has emerged as a new growth pillar.
■ Labor reform debate: Business executives and labor experts have called for loosening uniform working-hour rules and shifting from seniority-based pay to a job- and performance-based system. At the same time, a consensus emerged that greater flexibility must not weaken worker protections, and that safeguards on health rights along with retraining and reemployment support should be strengthened in parallel.
[Top News for Corporate CEOs]
1. Cutting Board Seats and Adjusting Terms: Large Firms Scramble Before Cumulative Voting
- Key points: Major Korean companies subject to mandatory cumulative voting narrowed the path onto their boards at this year's regular shareholder meetings. An analysis by Leaders Index, a corporate research firm, of 269 listed companies among the top 50 business groups that could be compared with the previous year found the total number of directors fell to 1,733 from 1,780 a year earlier, a decline of 47, or 2.6%. Kakao (035720) cut 14 directors, Lotte 13 and Samsung nine. At Hanjin KAL (180640), after Hoban Construction narrowed its stake gap with Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae to 0.42 percentage point, the board size was changed from "no fewer than three and no more than 11" to "no fewer than three and no more than nine." Major affiliates of Hanwha (000880) Group extended director terms from "up to two years" to "three years or up to three years." Business circles argue that because the revised Commercial Act has strengthened shareholder rights, management defense tools such as dual-class shares and poison pills should also be introduced for the sake of balance.
- Key points: Hyundai Steel is expected to speed up its push into advanced manufacturing markets such as AI data centers and power infrastructure on the back of its new U.S. production base. In March, the company set up a next-generation power infrastructure task force team to better address demand in new markets. Data centers, transmission towers and energy storage systems form the core of its sales strategy for power infrastructure steel, and this year alone it has won orders of more than 30,000 tons from seven new data centers. McKinsey & Company projected that U.S. capital spending on AI data centers will grow at an average annual rate of 22%, from $120 billion in 2024 to about $400 billion in 2030. Rebar exports to the United States in the first half of this year came to 484,000 tons, more than 33 times the volume in the same period last year.
3. "Performance-Based Pay and Labor Flexibility Needed": 85% Call for Reform of 52-Hour Week
- Key points: In a survey of 102 business executives and labor experts conducted by Seoul Economic Daily, working hours drew the clearest demand for change. Extending the settlement period for flexible working-hour schemes and easing their requirements was cited most often at 29.4%, followed by easing approval requirements for special extended work at 28.5% and introducing a "Korean-style exemption" for groups such as semiconductor and AI researchers at 25.6%. By contrast, only 15.2% favored keeping the current 52-hour workweek. Asked why the seniority-based pay scale hinders the shift to advanced industries, the most common answer, at 21.2%, was that it impedes the movement and redeployment of talent into strategic industries. As the body that should lead the transition, a tripartite social dialogue mechanism was chosen by 46.1%, and 59.8% favored a phased rollout following pilot adoption in specific regions or sectors.
[Reference News for Corporate CEOs]
4. Chung: "Steel Made in the U.S. Will Also Go Into Atlas"
- Key points: Ground was broken for Hyundai Steel-POSCO Louisiana Steel (HPLS), Hyundai Motor (005380) Group's first steel production base in the United States. At the groundbreaking ceremony in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, on the 4th, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung said, "Through the steel produced at HPLS, we will be able to create synergy both in improving vehicle quality and in easing tariff burdens," adding that the steel will also be used in Atlas, the humanoid robot to be built in the United States. Hyundai Motor Group, in a joint venture with POSCO, is investing $5.8 billion (about 8 trillion won) to produce 2.7 million tons a year of products including high-value, low-carbon specialty steel from 2029. HPLS is the first integrated electric arc furnace mill in the United States dedicated to automotive steel sheet, and is expected to serve both as a foothold to get around U.S. steel tariffs of up to 50% and as a shield against the Donald Trump administration's pressure to expand investment in the United States.
5. Overseas Resource Development Shifts to Equity Investment; Daewangorae Project to Continue
- Key points: A new entity tentatively named Korea Energy and Resources Corporation, created by merging Korea Gas Corporation and Korea National Oil Corporation, will pursue overseas resource development through equity investment. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is reviewing a plan that would allow only participation as an equity partner in projects run by foreign governments or companies when developing new overseas oil and gas fields, while the Daewangorae deep-sea oil development project in the East Sea will continue as a joint development with a global oil major. The government is wary of direct development because most failures, such as the Harvest project in Canada that pushed Korea National Oil Corporation into negative net worth, involved the direct development model. Meanwhile, there has been no progress on legislation to allow the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation, which was left out of the merger, to develop overseas mineral resources directly.
6. LG Uplus to Cut AI Data Center Build Times With Launch of PMDC Alliance
- Key points: LG Uplus (032640) will jointly develop a standard model for prefabricated modular data centers (PMDC) with GS E&C (006360), Xi C&A, Gansam Architects and D&O CM to meet surging demand for AI infrastructure. Under the PMDC approach, building structures and power and cooling equipment are standardized and prefabricated at a factory before being assembled on site, shortening construction time and improving quality consistency compared with conventional on-site construction. Drawing on its experience operating data centers nationwide and the Paju AI data center, LG Uplus will define operating standards and technical requirements, GS E&C will handle constructability reviews and engineering, procurement and construction capabilities, and Xi C&A will develop retrofit models and optimize power and cooling. LG Uplus CEO Hong Beom-shik said the company will strengthen its competitiveness in building next-generation AI data centers with a PMDC model that is globally competitive.
▶Read the article: Cutting Board Seats and Adjusting Terms: Large Firms Scramble Before Cumulative Voting
▶Read the article: Hana Securities Turns Overseas for Capital, Aiming to Pass Kiwoom With 7 Trillion Won in Equity
