[Monitor] South Koreans use 3.3b plastic cups per year

According to a report by Greenpeace last week, South Koreans used in total 23.5 billion plastic bags, 4.9 billion plastic bottles and 3.3 billion plastic cups in 2017.The amount of used plastic bags would cover 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula, the report said.The organization, however, noted that 62 percent of disposed plastic waste is recycled in Korea, compared to 40 percent in the European Union. But simply comparing the figures is not realistic, Greenpeace noted, explaining that the EU fi

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

Korean executives continue to deliver keynotes at CES

Chief executives of Korean companies continue to stand at the Customer Electronics Show’s podium for keynote speeches, offering glimpses into ongoing global trends in the electronics industry. This year, Samsung’s Consumer Electronics division CEO Kim Hyun-suk will deliver his keynote address on enhanced applications of artificial intelligence-powered customer electronics on Tuesday. In 2019, LG’s chief technology officer opened CES 2019 with a speech also centered on consumer

TechnologyJan. 6, 2020

[News Focus] ESG drive of Korean banks in spotlight

Bringing both financial sustainability and transparency have been the focus of South Korean banks amid growing calls around the world for good corporate governance practices and increased predictability in the market.Companies here -- both financial and nonfinancial -- floated an almost combined $13 billion worth of environmental, social and corporate governance-linked bonds in 2019 alone, nearly double from the previous year’s corresponding figure of $7 billion, according to data provided

MarketJan. 6, 2020

Lung cancer survival rates up in Seoul

Seven in 10 lung cancer patients who have undergone surgery at Asan Medical Center in Seoul have survived, the hospital said in a report.  The cardiothoracic surgery department at Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul said Monday the postsurgery survival rate of patients with lung cancer, the sixth most common cancer among Koreans, has improved markedly over the past decade. In the hospital’s study of around 7,500 lung cancer patients from 2002 to 2016, the five-year survival rate in

TechnologyJan. 6, 2020

KT plans to make AI available everywhere

Artificial intelligence-enabled products and services, including portable speakers, chatbots and robots, are already out there, serving customers in different industries and of different needs. Few of them, however, are offering truly practical benefits. AI speakers are still short of fully understanding human language while robot assistants deployed at public spaces often end up gathering dust due partly to their still clumsy speech and movement capabilities. KT, a Korean conglomerate that o

TechnologyJan. 6, 2020

With Cherokee Trailhawk to debut this year, Jeep joins 10,000-unit club

American classic sport utility vehicle brand Jeep sold 10,251 units in Korea in 2019, joining the “10,000-unit club” here for the first time, the company said Monday. The 10,000-unit mark is a standard that measures whether foreign carmakers have made a safe landing here.According to Jeep, it saw a 35.1 percent increase in annual sales last year from the year prior, bringing it to seventh among foreign carmakers and second among imported SUV brands.  It is the first time for the

MobilityJan. 6, 2020

Apple most favored by Korean investors among foreign stocks in Q4: data

Apple Inc. was the top pick by South Korean investors among foreign companies during the fourth quarter of last year as local investors joined the rush to buy shares in the US tech giant on hopes of it making a rally, data showed Monday. Apple outperformed all other market-leading tech shares in 2019, rising 86 percent, as its new products, such as the Apple Watch 4 series, drew better-than-expected market response.According to the data compiled by the Korea Securities Depository, South Korean i

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

[CES 2020] Korean tech giants to showcase more AI robots

LAS VEGAS -- Living together with multiple robots that assist humans in everyday life at home is no longer a distant future. At the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off Tuesday in Las Vegas, South Korean tech leaders will demonstrate how their robots can live together with humans and what roles they will play, blending artificial intelligence into people’s everyday life at their exhibition booths in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Samsung Electronics will take the largest area of 3,368 s

TechnologyJan. 6, 2020

SKC to complete takeover of world's top copper foil maker for $1b

SKC Inc., a chemical unit of SK Group, said Monday that it will acquire KCF Technologies Co., the world's top producer of copper foil for lithium-ion batteries, this week in a bid to diversify its business portfolio.SKCFT Holdings Co., a subsidiary of SKC, is set to buy a 100 percent stake in KCFT from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a US-based private equity fund, for 1.19 trillion won ($1 billion) on Tuesday."The acquisition is meant to expand mobility business," SKC said in a reg

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

Hyundai Motor rolls out upgraded Kona Electric 2020

Hyundai Motor said Monday it has launched Kona Electric 2020, an upgraded version of the country’s most-sold electric vehicle last year.A total of 13,587 units of Kona Electric were sold in the domestic market last year, maintaining its top position in the EV market for two years in a row.  The automaker said all trims of Kona Electric 2020 have adopted 10.25-inch navigation, offering drivers with wider, clearer screen as well as various multimedia contents. The navigation program is

MobilityJan. 6, 2020

S. Korea's content industry grows 3.1% in first half of 2019

South Korea's content industry expanded 3.1 percent in the first half of 2019 from the same period the previous year, driven by growth in comics, information services and movies, data showed Monday.Sales of the South Korean content industry reached 58.13 trillion won ($49.7 billion) in the first six months last year, compared with 56.37 trillion won in the same period in 2018, according to the data by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency.Comics, mostl

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

Imported car sales dip 6.1% in 2019 as Japanese brands struggle

Imported car sales in South Korea fell 6.1 percent in 2019 from a year earlier as Japanese brands struggled with a boycott amid trade tensions between Seoul and Tokyo, an industry association said Monday.The number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 244,780 units last year from the previous year's 260,705, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association."Local campaigns against Japanese vehicles and other products are still underway, weighing on imported

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

Korean firms expected to register better earnings in 2020

Nine out of 10 major listed firms in South Korea expect to see their profitability turn for the better in 2020 on the back of a much-awaited recovery in the global chipmaking sector and lower base effect, a market tracker said Monday.According to FnGuide, 264 listed companies, or 91.4 percent of the 289 major companies listed on the main bourse and the secondary bourse, said their performance will get better this year compared with last year.The combined operating profit of the 264 companies is

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

Financial watchdog to give more time to banks over dispute settlement

South Korea's financial watchdog said Monday that it will give more time to six banks to decide whether to accept a proposal meant to resolve disputes over currency-related derivatives.The move came two days before a deadline by which the six banks are required to decide whether to accept and honor the arbitration proposal by the dispute settlement board of the Financial Supervisory Service.The watchdog has said the deadline can be extended if requested by the relevant parties. So far, none of t

EconomyJan. 6, 2020

Hyundai sells over 50,000 Palisade SUVs in S. Korea last year

Hyundai Motor Co. said Monday that it sold over 50,000 Palisade sport utility vehicle models in the domestic market last year, helping buoy the carmaker's annual sales. For the whole of 2019, 52,299 Palisades were sold here following its launch in January, Hyundai sales data showed. Some potential SUV buyers chose the flagship Palisade over the midsize Santa Fe SUV last year amid concerns of cannibalization, or competition between models from the same carmaker. But the flagship Palisade's h

IndustryJan. 6, 2020

Korea's FX reserves hit record high in Dec.

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves climbed to a record high in December on the back of the weakening of the US greenback, which pushed up the dollar value of other foreign currencies held by the country, central bank data showed Monday.The country's foreign exchange reserves came to $408.82 billion as of the end of last month, up $1.36 billion from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.The amount marks the world's ninth largest.The increase "mainly stems from an

MarketJan. 6, 2020

[Monitor] EV sales by Hyundai, Kia more than double

Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors said they have seen their combined electric vehicle exports more than double last year.In 2019, the two carmakers exported 63,414 EVs, up from 27,798 units a year earlier.Their other eco-friendly vehicles including plug-in hybrid and fuel cell EV models also increased 16 percent to 226,581 units last year.Hyundai’s all-electric models include the Ioniq and the Kona Electric. Kia sells the Niro Electric and Soul electric boxcar in global markets. H

MobilityJan. 5, 2020

[News Focus] Who’s going to be fintech star in 2020?

An inflow of new players is likely to intensify the heated digitalization race in South Korea’s financial industry this year, along with the industry-wide efforts to expand the scope of business and accelerate innovation. Taking a bold step in a heavily regulated country in terms of customer information protection and security, traditional banks and financial institutions late last year started what is called an open banking service.Offering new business opportunities to small-sized financ

MarketJan. 5, 2020

Politics-themed stocks to rally ahead of April general elections

Ahead of the April parliamentary elections, politics-themed stocks are already experiencing a roller-coaster ride. While Seoul’s benchmark Kospi has stayed in a box pattern, stocks related to political figures are expected to show more volatility as elections approach.Related stocks could either surge or dip depending on the candidates’ political moves or performance. Since stock price manipulators take advantage of such stocks, financial authorities have vowed to monitor them closel

MarketJan. 5, 2020

Hyundai Motor steps up car-sharing business in Los Angeles

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker, has stepped up its car-sharing business in Los Angeles, about two months after entering the market. Last November, Hyundai Motor set up a venture, MoceanLab, to offer mobility services in the US city with 15 Ioniq plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.Hyundai Motor plans to deploy about 300 Ioniq electric cars and vehicles from its affiliate, Kia Motors Corp., company officials said. Hyundai Motor's car-sharing business is a part of the US city'

IndustryJan. 5, 2020