Seoul stocks climb to near 3-month high on hopes of economic recovery

South Korean stocks closed sharply higher Monday on hopes of a quick economic recovery prompted by a government push for a third supplementary budget and eased concerns over tensions between the United States and China. The Korean won sharply rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) surged 35.48 points, or 1.75 percent, to close at 2,065.08, the highest reading since March 5. Trading volume was moderate at about 982.5 million shares worth some 9.6 tri

MarketJune 1, 2020

BAT Korea opens application for Do-Dream talent competition

BAT Korea has opened applications for its talent-fostering competition BAT Do-Dream on Monday, setting this year’s theme as “Environment and social activities for a better tomorrow.” The tobacco firm started its talent competition in 2017, where participants pitch their goal activities, such as writing a scenario or starting a new business, and the company selects a number of teams and provides financial support. On Friday, BAT Korea held a BAT Do-Dream Talk Concert in Seou

IndustryJune 1, 2020

Hyundai Heavy to increase spending on safety measures

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, South Korea's ninth-biggest conglomerate, said Monday it will spend an additional 300 billion won ($244 million) to beef up safety for its workers over the next three years. With the additional spending, the group will spend a total of 1.64 trillion won during the cited period to improve safety at the facilities of its nine affiliates, including Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the country's biggest shipbuilder, it said in an emailed statement. It will also increa

IndustryJune 1, 2020

5G subscribers in S. Korea top 6 million: data

More than 6 million South Koreans were subscribed to 5G mobile networks as of April, a year after the country adopted the service, government data showed Monday. The number of 5G users in the nation reached 634 million as of the end of April, up 7.8 percent from a month earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The nation's three carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- rolled out the commercial 5G network last April and have aggressively pr

IndustryJune 1, 2020

Amorepacific launches vegan-friendly cosmetics brand Enough Project

Amorepacific, a leading cosmetics manufacturer here, launched Enough Project on Monday, a vegan-friendly lifestyle brand highlighting practicality. Under the new brand, Amorepacific presented seven new products including cleansing oil, essential lotion products and sun screen. The products are all vegan-friendly, with no animal testing and no animal-derived ingredients, the company said. According to the company, its main moisturizing cream has beta-hyaluronic acid, which is 1.5 times more a

ConsumerJune 1, 2020

Samyang Foods sells export-version of Spicy Buldak Spicy Chicken noodles in Korea

Samyang Foods said Monday it will open limited sales of the export-version of Buldak Spicy Chicken noodles on its online mall for Korean consumers for the first time. The products include the original Spicy Buldak Chicken noodle, Carbonara Spicy Buldak Chicken noodle, 3X Haek Buldak Spicy Chicken noodle -- known as 3X Fire Noodle among non-Korean speakers -- and Corn Spicy Buldak Chicken noodle. All four products do not include meat-derived ingredients, the company said. While the original a

ConsumerJune 1, 2020

SCM Lifescience lowers IPO price in second attempt

South Korea’s biotech firm SCM Lifescience said Monday it has decided to lower its initial public offering price range to attract more investors for its market debut this month on the Kosdaq. By issuing 1.8 million new common shares, each at between 14,000 won ($11.40) and 17,000 won, the biotech firm is looking to raise up 30.6 billion won, SCM Lifescience CEO Rhee Byung-geon said in a press briefing. Under the plan, the firm’s market capitalization after listing is anticipated t

MarketJune 1, 2020

LS C&S develops app to recommend customized cables

LS Cable & System said Monday it has developed a mobile application that allows users to find cables even without professional knowledge. The app called ConnectLS recommends most suitable cables for users with a couple of touches instead of calculating allowable current considering various conditions, LS C&S said. There are hundreds of types of cables used in power transmission networks, construction and industrial sites. ConnectLS recommends cables when a user selects various condi

IndustryJune 1, 2020

SsangYong Motor sells Seoul service center to improve fiscal health

SsangYong Motor said Monday it has sold an after sales service center located in Guro-gu in Seoul for 180 billion won ($146 million), as part of its efforts to improve its fiscal health.  The automaker said by selling noncore assets, it will continue to secure liquidity and focus on increasing competitiveness for product development.  In the first quarter this year, its net loss expanded to 193.5 billion won over the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Its operating loss came

MobilityJune 1, 2020

KITA partners with Startup Junkie for US test bed

The Korea International Trade Association said Monday it is joining hands with US-based Startup Junkie to back Korean startups to test their technologies and products overseas. The partnership deal was signed by chief of KITA’s innovation growth division Dong-ki and Louis Diesel, director and head of Asia at Startup Junkie, in Seoul. Startup Junkie is funded in large part by the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization led by the family of Walmart founder Sam Walton, as we

IndustryJune 1, 2020

Retrieval rate of bailout funds up 0.1% in Q1

The rate of bailout funds recouped from companies that borrowed from the government since the 1997 Asian financial crisis rose 0.1 percent in the first quarter to 69.3 percent, the country’s financial regulator said Monday. As of end-March, the government had retrieved a total of 116.8 trillion won out of the 168.7 trillion won extended to companies struggled to survive in the 1997 and 2008 financial crises, according to the Financial Services Commission. The retrieval of taxpayers&rsq

MarketJune 1, 2020

NCSOFT's Lineage 2M highest grossing app on Google Play Store in Q1

Lineage 2M, a mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by South Korean online game maker NCSOFT Corp., was the highest grossing app on the Google Play Store during the first quarter of the year, industry data showed Monday. The mobile version of the mega-hit game "Lineage 2" was the most popular app in the world on Android platforms during the January-March period, partly on the back of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has confined people to their homes, the

IndustryJune 1, 2020

Samsung embarks on NAND flash line at 2nd Pyeongtaek fab

Samsung Electronics announced Monday it has embarked on creating the second production line for its advanced V-NAND flash memory chips in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, with a schedule to start rolling them out in the second half of 2021. The company has started working on the NAND cleanroom in May in order to respond to the rising demand for artificial intelligence and internet of things technologies amid the spreading non-contact lifestyles and services in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

TechnologyJune 1, 2020

SKC to spend W120b on new copper foil plant

South Korean chemicals maker SKC Co. said Monday that it will invest 120 billion won ($98 million) to build a new plant for its copper foil subsidiary in an effort to help cement the latter's market position. The company will break ground on SK Nexilis' sixth plant in the southwestern city of Jeongeup in August this year for completion in the first quarter of 2022, said SKC, a unit of South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate SK Group. The factory will have an annual capacity of 9,000 tons, raising S

IndustryJune 1, 2020

KB Asset launches AI-powered fund to invest in global ETFs

Seoul-based KB Asset Management said Monday it has launched an open-ended fund that invests in exchange-traded funds at home and abroad, powered by its own artificial neural network for automated portfolio allocation. The new ETF managed portfolio fund, dubbed KB All Asset AI Solution Fund, will target various ETFs -- or a basket of securities -- that each track asset classes such as stocks, bonds, loans, real estate investment trusts and commodities. Its portfolio will be automatically rebal

MarketJune 1, 2020

Volvo Cars Korea introduces lifetime warranty service as industry’s first

Volvo Cars Korea said Monday that it has introduced a lifetime auto parts warranty for customers -- the first such guarantee by a carmaker here -- as part of its efforts to improve customer services. The service will allow customers to receive repairs on auto parts that have been changed at its official after sales service center, regardless of the number of times they have received the service and how long they have had the car. Those who have changed auto parts after June 1 and have agree

MobilityJune 1, 2020

Hyundai Engineering invests in Poland's polypropylene plant

Hyundai Engineering Co., a plant engineering affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, said Monday it has signed a deal with three business partners to invest a combined $733.3 million in a polypropylene plant in Poland. Of the planned investment, Hyundai Engineering and South Korea's state-run Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp. will invest a combined $130 million, Hyundai Engineering said, without elaborating on its own investment and its stake in the project. The two other

IndustryJune 1, 2020

Institutions' investment in foreign securities down in Q1

South Korean institutions' investment in foreign securities dropped in the first quarter, central bank data showed Monday, partly due to a market slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The combined value of overseas stocks and bonds held by South Korean institutions came to $317.8 billion as of end-March, down $9.61 billion from three months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The drop marks a sharp turnaround from a $14.6 billion on-quarter spike posted in the last t

MarketJune 1, 2020

KT Skylife mulling entering budget phone service market

KT Skylife Co., a satellite broadcasting provider in South Korea, is considering entering the budget phone service market, industry sources said Monday, as it tries to explore a new growth engine beyond the pay TV business. The affiliate of South Korean telecommunication firm KT Corp. recently expressed its intent to the Ministry of Science and ICT for a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business, according to the sources. MVNOs refer to companies that rent infrastructure from major te

IndustryJune 1, 2020

OB’s makgeolli-beer cocktail video starring Baek Jong-won hits 1 million views

South Korea’s largest beer maker by revenue, Oriental Brewery said Sunday its YouTube videos starring chef Baek Jong-won have pulled in a total of 13 million views, creating a new boom of “MakCass” -- a mixture of Korea’s traditional liquor makgeolli and OB’s flagship beer Cass. OB released six videos on its channel Cass, dubbed “Essential Beer Class,” starting May 4, where Baek and comedian brothers Yang Se-hyung and Se-chan talk about liquor and beer

IndustryJune 1, 2020