LG Electronics’ OLED evo collects awards at Visual Grand Prix

LG Electronics revealed on Thursday that its OLED evo received the highest honor, the VGP Gold award, in the 50-to-60-inch and under-45-inch OLED TV categories at the Visual Grand Prix 2023. The product also received the Critics Award in the visual category. The VGP is an annual audio-visual (AV) awards event held by Japanese AV media outlet Ongen Publishing. Devices are judged by experts and electronics dealers based on technological qualifications and consumer satisfaction. Regarding the LG OL

Jan. 12, 2023

Samsung Biologics to enter antibody-drug conjugate market

By Shim Woo-hyun Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- Samsung Biologics pinpointed antibody-drug conjugates, a next-generation technology in cancer treatment, as one of its future growth drivers as the South Korean biotech giant unveiled its business strategies and investment plans Wednesday during the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, the health care industry’s largest investment gathering of the year. “We are going into ADC. We will have a manufacturing plan

Jan. 12, 2023

[KH Explains] Apple’s move to ditch Korean displays met with skepticism

Having announced its plans to make more chips on its own, Apple, the world’s largest consumer electronics company by revenue, is now reportedly seeking to use its own displays whose supplies are heavily reliant on South Korea’s Samsung Display and LG Display. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Apple is planning to start using its own micro light-emitting diode displays on its smartwatches as early as the end of 2024, possibly with the aim to reduce its reliance on Korea-made displays.

Jan. 12, 2023

Lotte Biologics pledges $3b to beef up production at home

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lotte Biologics will invest around $3 billion by 2030 to build new CDMO plants in South Korea, Lotte Biologics CEO Richard Lee announced during the company’s presentation at the 41st JPMorgan Healthcare Conference held in San Francisco, Tuesday. The investment will go toward building three plants, with a combined manufacturing capacity of 360,000 liters, 120,000 each, according to Lee. About $1 billion will be needed per plant, Lee estimated. The company will start to buil

Jan. 11, 2023

[From the Scene] Samsung spurring innovation from Silicon Valley

SAN JOSE, California -- At the heart of Silicon Valley, home to world's largest tech giants, stands a landmark 10-story building in the shape of a three-layer stack of NAND flash memory chips. The symbolic building is the headquarters of Samsung Electronics Device Solutions America, which oversees the production of semiconductors in the United States -- a market that takes up more than half of the global chip demand. Opening the US headquarters to Korean media on Saturday, Sue Kim, the he

Jan. 11, 2023

[Herald Interview] Yuhan aims for bigger presence in US

SAN FRANCISCO – South Korean pharmaceutical giant Yuhan is seeking to increase cooperation with researchers and biotechnology firms based in the US, with hopes to benefit from the nation’s abundant human resources and research opportunities. “Yuhan might be a leading pharmaceutical company in South Korea, but in the US market, it is still an underdog,” said Yuhan USA CEO Yoon Tae-won during an interview held on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, the la

Jan. 11, 2023

[Photo News] Future mobility in style

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that the automaker has received 11 accolades from the 2022 Good Design Awards in the US. The South Korean auto giant took home three awards in robotics design with future mobility concepts that combine in-wheel motors, steering, suspension, braking system and environmental sensors into one structure.

Jan. 11, 2023

Samsung to unveil Galaxy S23 on Feb. 1 in San Francisco

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday sent out invites to its annual unpacking event for its new flagship Galaxy devices that will take place in San Francisco at 10 a.m. on Feb. 1. Entitled “Galaxy Unpacked 2023: Share the Epic,” the event will be held in person for the first time in three years since the pandemic. It will also be livestreamed from Seoul through Samsung’s newsroom and homepage, as well as its official YouTube channel, the officials said. “A new era of Galaxy i

Jan. 11, 2023

Biotech firms flock to JPMorgan Healthcare Conference

Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- The 41st Annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference kicked off on Monday in San Francisco. This year, three South Korean companies will give presentations, while many others will hold meetings to attract new partners and investors. Around 550 presenting companies have descended on the Californian city, in addition to thousands of investors and biotechnology executives from around the world. From Korea, Samsung Biologics, Lotte Biologics and SD Biosensor h

Jan. 10, 2023

[Photo News] Lighter plastic for cars

LG Chem said Tuesday it has supplied metal-replaceable plastic to Mitsubishi for the Japanese carmaker’s three SUV models – the Outlander, Delica D:5 (pictured) and RVR. Using the lighter material, the company said, the plastic fender is about 4 kilograms lighter than the previous metal alternative of the same size, improving the fuel efficiency of the vehicles.

Jan. 10, 2023

[Herald Interview] ‘There will be always more demand for chips, displays’

LAS VEGAS – The prolonged economic recession and inflation is drawing a grim outlook for semiconductor and display industries, even for top players such as South Korea’s Samsung and LG. But Merck Electronics CEO Kai Beckmann says that companies will persist, as demand for chips and displays will continue to grow, in the long run. “The electronics industry, ever since it developed, has had ups and downs. It is kind of a normal phenomenon in our industry. The good thing is that,

Jan. 9, 2023

[KH Explains] Is Samsung’s robotics ambition taking shape with Rainbow stake?

Samsung Electronics recently purchased a sizeable stake in Rainbow Robotics, a local humanoid robotics company, for 59 billion won ($47 million), offering a glimpse into the South Korean tech giant’s robotics ambitions that are still under wraps. Earlier this month Samsung purchased some 1.94 million shares of Rainbow Robotics, one of the handful of robot companies that make bipedal human-like robots, becoming the second-largest shareholder of the company. Following the news, shares of t

Jan. 9, 2023

US satellite may possibly fall around Korean Peninsula

The South Korean science ministry on Monday warned that a retired U.S. satellite could possible fall on the Korean Peninsula and its vicinities later this day. Launched in 1984, the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite is falling to Earth after completing its decadeslong mission to study how the Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the sun. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the ERBS is forecast to crash back down to Earth around 12:20-1:20 p.m. and the Korean Peninsula is included in the regio

Jan. 9, 2023

[CES 2023] LG CEO seeks breakthrough with car tech

LAS VEGAS -- LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan pinned high hopes on the South Korean tech giant’s burgeoning automotive solutions business, pledging to diversify its business portfolio to tackle challenges this year. “Our automotive solutions business has made a turnaround 10 years since the launch. Now that the business is on the highway, what is left to do is to step on the accelerator,” Cho said during a press conference held Friday on the sidelines of the CES trade show in Las

Jan. 8, 2023

[CES 2023] [From the Scene] SK intrigues attendees with carbon-reducing tech

LAS VEGAS -- The exhibition of SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, drew the eyes of visitors and participants at CES 2023 held in Las Vegas from Thursday to Sunday. “They set up these black walls. I can’t really see what’s inside there,” said Chris Tomlin, an auto mechanic based in Los Angeles, as he stood in line to enter the exhibition area. There were others getting in the waiting line as the inside of the exhibition was not entirely visible from

Jan. 8, 2023

[CES 2023] [From the Scene] Bodyfriend combines health care with massage chair

LAS VEGAS -- Dozens of people lined up in front of Bodyfriend’s exhibition at CES 2023 on Friday morning, waiting to try out the latest products of the South Korean massage chair maker. “I feel like it’s another world. It’s amazing. I did a lower body workout a couple of days ago and it really helped ease my muscle,” Halah Ramzi, an electric engineer from San Diego, told The Korea Herald after her 10-minute experience with Quantum Rovo which features Bodyfriend&rsqu

Jan. 8, 2023

[CES 2023] Samsung CEO braces for rough year

LAS VEGAS – Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and co-CEO Han Jong-hee said the South Korean tech giant was bracing for a rough year ahead, renewing his commitment to seeking new growth drivers in futuristic technologies such as robots and the metaverse. “Overlapping crises, including the prolonged economic recession, geopolitical tension, supply chain risks and climate change, have drastically increased uncertainty in the market,” Han said at a press conference Friday held on

Jan. 8, 2023

LG Electronics’ Q4 operating profit estimated to nose-dive 91%

LG Electronics said Friday it expected its 2022 fourth-quarter operating earnings tumbled more than 91 percent from a year prior, amid its home appliance unit’s sluggish performance coupled with global recession woes. LG estimated operating profit for the October-December period came in at 65.5 billion won ($51.6 million), down 91.2 percent from the same period a year before, according to the company’s earnings guidance. It would be the first time in four years for South Korea’

Jan. 6, 2023

Naver closes acquisition of US e-commerce firm Poshmark

Korean internet portal giant Naver announced Friday that the company has completed its acquisition of Poshmark, a US social commerce marketplace for fashion, a move to penetrate into the global consumer-to-consumer market. Naver's special purpose company Proton Parent acquired all shares and its assets of Poshmark for $1.31 billion. Its enterprise value stands at about $1.2 billion. With the transaction, Poshmark withdrew its plan to go public on the US Nasdaq, Naver said. Naver first decid

Jan. 6, 2023

[CES 2023] SK hynix chief says merger of Western Digital, Kioxia will 'not be easy'

LAS VEGAS -- SK hynix Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho said Thursday the merger of two memory competitors -- US’ Western Digital Corp. and Japan’s Kioxia Holdings Corp. -- "will not be easy," shrugging off the possibility of the two chipmakers' tie-up that could transform the business landscape. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that Western Digital and Kioxia are considering merging into one publicly traded company, citing unnamed sources. The structure of the potent

Jan. 6, 2023