Customs office nabs exporters of product allegedly infringing Posco's patent

SEJONG -- South Korea's customs agency said Wednesday it has apprehended a group of five people who had exported an industrial product suspected of infringing a patent owned by the leading steelmaker Posco. The Korea Customs Service said it has forwarded the suspects to prosecutors for shipping four units of "air knife," which were produced by allegedly stealing Posco's patented technology, to an undisclosed nation from 2020 to 2021. An air knife is a device that sprays gas o

IndustryMay 31, 2023

S. Korea's exports of tractors hit fresh record in 2022

South Korea's exports of agriculture tractors hit a record high in 2022 by advancing 23 percent on-year, data showed Wednesday, amid growing demand for small-sized models. The value of tractors shipped overseas came to $1.24 billion in 2022, rising from $1 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. The amount also marked a sharp rise from $657 million posted in 2020, the data showed. The customs office said the increase was driven by rising

EconomyMay 31, 2023

Foreign ownership of S. Korean land rises 1.8 % in 2022

Foreign ownership of South Korean land rose 1.8 percent in 2022 from a year earlier, the land ministry said Wednesday. Foreigners owned 264.01 square kilometers -- slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan -- at the end of December. It represents 0.26 percent of South Korea's total land area, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. The value of land held by foreigners also increased 2.6 percent to 32.88 trillion won ($24.8 billion) over the cited pe

EconomyMay 31, 2023

Seoul shares open higher amid eased US debt ceiling woes

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday, as investors see the likelihood of a debt ceiling deal passing US Congress. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 9.35 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,594.87 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, Wall Street closed mixed as the debt ceiling deal reached between US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went to Congress. The deal now needs to receive enough bipartisan support before the June 5 deadline to avert a po

MarketMay 31, 2023

Industrial output dips most in over 1 year in April; inventories at record high

SEJONG-- South Korea's industrial output dropped by the most in over a year in April due to an extended slump in the chipmaking sector, data showed Wednesday, with the inventory level at a fresh high. Industrial output dropped 1.4 percent on-month last month, snapping two consecutive months of gains, and marked the sharpest drop since a 1.5 percent fall in February last year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The output in the mining, manufacturing, gas, and electricity industr

EconomyMay 31, 2023

Boryung launches space initiative with global partners

South Korean health care company Boryung has launched a global space initiative to advance human activities in space with industry-leading partners, the company said Tuesday. Boryung has joined hands with Axiom Space, a US commercial space station developer, and the Space Exploration Initiative, a research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the Humans in Space program. The HIS program marks the second global-scale space project for Boryung, after the South Korean health

TechnologyMay 30, 2023

Users to confirm every targeted ad? Korean regulation in discussion

South Korea’s privacy watchdog is gearing up to post new guidelines next month mandating user consent for personalized online ads hosted by advertisers in Korea. Under the proposed regulation, currently being drafted by the Personal Information Protection Commission, users would be obliged to opt in or out of personalized ads each time they navigate a new online page, regardless of login and membership status. “Although such a guideline is being drafted, the details are not confirmed

TechnologyMay 30, 2023

SK Bioscience's homegrown COVID vaccine gets nod in UK

SK Bioscience announced on Tuesday that its COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione received approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. SKYCovione has been approved for first and second primary series doses for adults aged 18 and over in England, Scotland and Wales, SK Bioscience added. SKYCovione is a recombinant antigen-based COVID-19 vaccine, jointly developed with the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. The vaccine also contains GlaxoSmithKline&rs

TechnologyMay 30, 2023

Seoul shares close up as US debt jitters ease

South Korean stocks ended sharply higher Tuesday on a breakthrough in US debt ceiling negotiations. The local currency fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 26.71 points, or 1.04 percent, to close at 2,585.52. Trading volume was moderate at 631.71 million shares worth 10.75 trillion won ($8.11 billion), with winners outpacing losers 454 to 410. Offshore investors picked up a net 673.03 billion won worth of shares, while retail and institutional investo

MarketMay 30, 2023

Travel deficit widens as Koreans travel overseas in droves

South Korea's travel trade balance deficit widened to a three-year high in the first quarter of 2023, as the number of Koreans departing for overseas travel surged amid eased COVID-19 restrictions. According to numbers from the Bank of Korea on Tuesday, the country's travel trade balance marked a $3.23 billion deficit in the first three months of the year, with travel revenue coming in at $3.08 billion and expenditure at $6.32 billion. The figure hit its highest level since it stood a

EconomyMay 30, 2023

KITA forecasts improved chip exports in 2nd half

South Korea's semiconductor industry, which has been experiencing repeated downturns since August last year, is expected to revive in the latter half of the year, a Korean trade lobby group said on Tuesday. “I anticipate that our semiconductor industry will recover, reaching the level of the second quarter of last year by the fourth quarter. I expect that production cutbacks will be reversed and the overall economy will improve, particularly with the reopening of China playing a signi

IndustryMay 30, 2023

Is China feeling pressure from its own ban against Micron?

China appears to be feeling pressure of potential chip shortfall after banning US-based chipmaker Micron Technology from selling certain products to its market, and is calling for South Korean chipmakers to fill up the gap to meet its local chip demand, according to experts on Tuesday. Global Times, China’s state-run English media, said in an opinion piece on Monday it will be “natural” for South Korea’s chip companies to fill some market gap in China, if China and South

IndustryMay 30, 2023

SK hynix’s Gen5 DDR5 DRAM enters validation process

SK hynix said Tuesday that it has completed the development of the industry’s most advanced 10-nanometer technology-based DDR5 DRAM for servers and has entered a validation process together with US chip giant Intel. The latest fifth-generation DDR5 DRAM is the first of its generation being tested at the Intel Data Center Certified memory program for DDR5 products to run on Intel Xeon Scalable platforms. The chips boast an operating speed of 6.4 gigabits per second, the fastest speed amon

TechnologyMay 30, 2023

Posco Future M secures $221m funding from Canada for new plant

A joint venture project between Posco Future M and General Motors has secured 300 million Canadian dollars ($221 million) in funding from Canada to build an electric vehicles' battery materials plant. The provincial government of Quebec and the Canadian federal government on Monday announced the financial support plan to aid the joint venture project, named Ultium CAM, to construct the country's first cathode production factory. The public investment is aimed at strengthening the supp

IndustryMay 30, 2023

Hyundai Motor taps ex-presidential aide as global affairs executive

Hyundai Motor Group has reportedly recruited Kim Il-bum, a former presidential secretary, to strengthen its global public affairs competency, according to sources on Tuesday. Kim, who resigned from the presidential secretary position in March, is expected to begin working as an executive vice president at the auto giant in July. He is expected to help the company cope with challenging tasks amid a global supply chain crisis and bolster networks with foreign governments. "We are aware that t

MobilityMay 30, 2023

Samsung self-repair service becomes available in Korea

Samsung Electronics said Monday it is offering a self-repair service program in South Korea for key products, including Galaxy smartphones, laptops and TVs, following the program's debut in the US last year. Under the program, the tech giant allows consumers to purchase parts and tools online to repair their devices themselves without having to visit a service center. The first products in the lineup for the service include the Galaxy S20, S21 and S22 smartphones, Galaxy Book Pro laptops an

TechnologyMay 30, 2023

[Photo News] Nike's playground for all

Nike Korea said Tuesday it created a public sports space, called "Playground for All," jointly with Seoul Lifelong Education Institute and ChildFund Korea in Geumcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul, as part of its initiative to achieve carbon neutrality and practice social responsibility. Built on 1,613 square meters of land, the sports space consists of a running track, a basketball court, a futsal field and a play zone, with the floors and lockers made from recycled Nike sneakers and clot

ConsumerMay 30, 2023

Retail sales up 4 % in April on outdoor activities, shopping events

Retail sales in South Korea rose 4 percent on-year in April on the back of people's growing outdoor activities and various promotional events by major discount stores, the industry ministry said Tuesday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers came to 14.08 trillion won ($10.67 billion) last month, compared with 13.54 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The on-year increase came as more people turned

ConsumerMay 30, 2023

S. Korea to lower tariffs on major agricultural imports amid inflation

South Korea's finance ministry said Tuesday it has decided to apply tariff-rate quotas on eight major foodstuff imports to ease households' burden amid rising consumer prices. Under the plan passed at the Cabinet meeting, South Korea will lift tariffs on 45,000 tons of pork and 10,000 tons of mackerel starting in early June, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. "This year, the overall growth in consumer prices has slowed to some extent," the finance ministry sa

IndustryMay 30, 2023

SK bioscience's COVID-19 vaccine wins approval in Britain

SK bioscience Co., a pharmaceutical affiliate of South Korea's SK Group, said Tuesday its COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione has won approval from British authorities. The British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved the Korean vaccine for use as a primary vaccination in those aged 18 and over in the United Kingdom, according to the company. SK bioscience said it is SKYCovione's first permission outside Korea and it has become the eighth COVID-19 vaccine authoriz

TechnologyMay 30, 2023