KRX sees gold trading double on tax benefit

The Korea Exchange, an exchange operator where securities, derivatives and commodities are traded, said Sunday its daily average of gold transactions had doubled this year as investors sought safe assets and a tax benefit took hold in January. The KRX has been trading on average of 93.6 kilograms of gold per day on its spot market from January until June 11, up 114.8 percent from the 2019 average at 43.6 kilograms. At the same time, the spot gold price on the KRX surged 18 percent. Besides i

MarketJune 14, 2020

US energy, auto, services sectors face prolonged struggle in pandemic era: BOK

US-based firms in several sectors are likely to face a prolonged struggle due to the pandemic, and are even at the risk of producing more zombie firms, a report by South Korea’s central bank said Sunday. “The United States government’s active support has helped resolve the liquidity crunch of US-based firms, but the financial indexes of sectors classified as consumer discretionary, industrial products and energy have been relatively weak compared to others,” the weekly

EconomyJune 14, 2020

Korea's ICT exports down in May amid coronavirus pandemic

South Korean exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products fell for the second straight month in May, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic affected demand for displays and mobile phones, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of ICT products contracted 2.6 percent on-year to $13.93 billion last month, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The May tally follows a 15.3 percent on-year drop in exports in April and a 1.1 percent gain a month earlier, aft

EconomyJune 14, 2020

Seoul stocks likely to suffer extended slump this week

South Korean shares are expected to hover below the psychologically important 2,200-point level this week amid concerns over a resurgence in the coronavirus, which will also cause investor sentiment to wobble, analysts said Sunday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,181.87 points Friday, down 2.3 percent from a week ago. The KOSPI has been struggling to stay above the 2,200-point threshold seen as a return to a level seen prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

MarketJune 14, 2020

Samsung smartphones' average selling price highest in 6 years: report

Samsung Electronics Co. enjoyed the highest average selling price (ASP) of its smartphones in six years in the first quarter of the year, driven by robust demand for foldable phones and its flagship smartphones, industry data showed on Sunday. Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, sold its smartphones at $292 on average in the January-March period, up 8.5 percent from a year earlier. The first-quarter ASP also marks a 20.7 percent rise from three months earlier, according to data comp

TechnologyJune 14, 2020

[Weekender] Fake meat no more faux pas in Korea

Kim Jin-kyung first encountered “fake meat” several years ago, when she had a Korean course meal at a restaurant. The idea of “bean meat,” a brownish lump neatly laid on a plate, was fascinating, but the taste came short of her expectations. Years have passed and now Kim is having fun exploring different meat alternatives that are more abundant in flavor than her first experience. “There are not many, but still some decent fake meat products that are plant-based

IndustryJune 13, 2020

Hyundai Rotem delivers donation for people who served nation

Hyundai Rotem delivered a donation to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs’ regional office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, the company said. The donation will be used to assist people who have been recognized for meritorious service to the country but who are having financial difficulties. The latest donation was made by Hyundai Rotem’s executives and employees to commemorate people who died serving the country. South Korea celebrated Memorial Day on June 6. Sin

IndustryJune 12, 2020

Kospi cushions losses from Wall Street plunge

South Korea’s main stock bourse Kospi slipped 2 percent Friday in its biggest daily loss in over a month, as stock markets in the United States took another major blow due to resurfacing coronavirus woes. Kospi closed at 2,132.30 on Friday. Losers outnumbered gainers 720 to 160. As numbers of infections rose in some of the states that have reopened, including Texas and Arizona, both stocks and crude tumbled in the US on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 6.9 percent, S

MarketJune 12, 2020

ICT Ministry gives SK Telecom green light to terminate 2G service

The ICT Ministry of South Korea has approved SK Telecom’s request to end its 2G service, putting an end to the 25-year-old service that helped the country take the lead in the mobile phone industry. The ministry held a media briefing in Seoul on Friday, saying it had approved the termination of the 2G service, citing outdated servers and mechanical failures due to the lack of up-to-date equipment. Upon receiving the approval, SK Telecom said it would wrap up the service s

TechnologyJune 12, 2020

100,000 Samsung employees put heads together to solve COVID-19 conundrum

More than 100,000 Samsung Electronics employees held an online discussion in April about how to minimize the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the company’s 2020 Sustainability Report, released Friday. The report said 107,000 Samsung Electronics employees participated in the two-week discussion using its collective intelligence platform Mosaic and came up with 1,620 ideas. “After review, Samsung Electronics will filter ideas on daily quarantine, sterilization, he

IndustryJune 12, 2020

Tesla pushes LG Chem to No. 2 in Chinese EV battery market

LG Chem ranked second in the Chinese electric vehicle battery market for the January-March period this year, according to industry data. Market tracker the China Battery Enterprise Alliance said Thursday that LG Chem supplied EV batteries in China with a combined capacity of 2,087 megawatt-hours, surpassing local competitor BYD’s 1,943 megawatt-hours. Another local competitor, CATL, was in first place with 6,173 megawatt-hours. “LG Chem equipped 39,393 Tesla Model 3s built in Sh

IndustryJune 12, 2020

Nintendo Switch sales spike 30% in Korea amid COVID-19 outbreak

Daewon Media, which retails more than half of all Nintendo Switch game consoles here, said Friday that sales of the Japanese game consoles spiked 30 percent in the first quarter, thanks to the nationwide popularity of the hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons amid the coronavirus outbreak. The South Korean game distributor said it sold 82,848 Nintendo Switch consoles in the first quarter, a 30.4 percent increase on-year, and 287,590 Nintendo Switch games in the same period, a 57.4 percent s

IndustryJune 12, 2020

Seoul stocks sink 2% on renewed concerns over virus, won falls

South Korean stocks closed sharply lower Friday as investor sentiment was hurt by renewed concerns over the new coronavirus outbreak, analysts said. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After a choppy session, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 44.48 points, or 2.04 percent, to finish at 2,132.30, the lowest in eight sessions. Trading volume was moderate at 681.3 million shares worth 14.7 trillion won ($12.2 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 720 to 160

MarketJune 12, 2020

BOK chief pledges to build economic resilience to counter pandemic

The chief of South Korea’s central bank on Friday vowed all-out efforts to speed up the country’s economic recovery amid the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, raising the possibility of further monetary easing policies.  In a speech to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the central bank’s founding, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said monetary easing policies needed to be implemented until signs of an economic recovery appear.  To prompt credit flows in local financi

EconomyJune 12, 2020

Samsung's compensation for victims of work-related diseases exceeds W14b

Samsung Electronics Co. has so far compensated hundreds of victims of work-related diseases more than 14 billion won ($11.6 million), a special committee dedicated to support such workers said Friday. Samsung's independent compensation committee said it has completed application reviews for 458 cases, or 92 percent of the total compensation cases submitted through last month. Of them, 400 cases were eligible for compensation, and Samsung paid 14.2 billion won to the victims, it said. In 2018

IndustryJune 12, 2020

State agencies request 6% increase for 2021 budget

SEJONG -- South Korea's government ministries and state agencies have requested a 6 percent hike in their budgets for next year, as they want to spend more on welfare, research and development, the finance ministry said Friday. Ministries and state agencies have asked the government to set aside a combined 542.9 trillion won ($448 billion) for the budget for next year, up 30.7 trillion won from this year's 512.3 trillion won, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. To cope with post

EconomyJune 12, 2020

Coupang to pay W1m to each of its 2,600 quarantined temps

Coupang is set to pay 1 million won ($828) to each of its 2,600 temporary workers who have had to self-quarantine because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, the country’s leading e-commerce operator issued an in-house notice from Representative Director Sam Ko, saying, “We thought we had weathered the crisis. But COVID-19 has started spreading again, mainly in the metropolitan areas.” He added, “This is not an easy battle.” Coupang has made various so

IndustryJune 12, 2020

Will KAMCO buy cash-strapped Korean Air’s land?

With no companies bidding for the sale of Korean Air’s land in Songhyeon-dong, Seoul, the government unveiled plans to launch a corporate asset purchase program worth 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion), raising expectations that the carrier may have a new option.　 According to industry sources, there were no participants in the preliminary bidding for Korean Air’s land, which closed Wednesday. That outcome was deemed to have been influenced by the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s p

IndustryJune 12, 2020

[Monitor] Disaster relief funds mostly used for dining out, shopping

The emergency disaster relief funds for citizens provided by the government to combat the impact of COVID-19 pandemic were mainly used for dining out and shopping while sales for opticians, hospitals and pharmacies grew the most last month, data showed. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety data, which analyzed the use of credit and debit cards for availing the emergency funds from May 11-31 by eight companies, including KB Kookmin, NongHyup, Lotte, BC, Samsung, Shinhan, Hana and Hyundai

IndustryJune 12, 2020

S. Korea says downside risks to economy slightly recede

South Korea's finance ministry said Friday that downside risks to the nation's economy have slightly receded but warned that risks of global recession have weighed on an economic recovery. In a monthly report, called the "Green Book," the Ministry of Economy and Finance painted a somewhat positive picture of the economy, compared with its May report.    "With a decline in domestic consumption showing signs of easing and employment indices recovering, downside ri

EconomyJune 12, 2020