TV war looms as Samsung, LG head to IFA this week

South Korean tech rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are heading to Berlin this week to show off their latest home appliances, including flagship TVs, during the IFA trade show that kicks off Friday (local time). Keen interest is being paid to whether Samsung will showcase its latest OLED TVs during the annual gathering. After a nearly nine-year hiatus, Samsung started rolling out OLED TVs early this year, but no high-profile promotional event has been held, raising speculation abou

TechnologyAug. 29, 2022

More self-employed work alone in Korea

SEJONG -- The number of self-employed people without employees came to the highest in 14 years in South Korea amid the surge in food deliverymen and business startups among retirees, state data showed Monday. The nation’s self-employed is split into two groups: those who hire several workers as micro-business owners, and those who do not hire any employees. The latter are also called own-account workers. According to Statistics Korea, the number of own-account workers, who work alone, re

EconomyAug. 29, 2022

Seoul stocks slump, snapping 3-day winning streak; Korean won falls to lowest level against US dollar in 13 years

South Korean stocks tumbled Monday as investors grappled with renewed concerns over the US central bank's aggressive monetary tightening. The Korean won dropped to its lowest level against the US dollar in 13 years. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 54.14 points, or 2.18 percent, to close at 2,426.89, ending its three-day rise. Trading volume was moderate at 441.63 million shares worth 7.79 trillion won ($5.77 billion), with losers far outnumbering winners 822 to 86. Ins

MarketAug. 29, 2022

Financial firm workers embezzled W170b over 6 years: lawmaker

Executives from financial firms were reaping astronomical salaries and bonuses amid increasing embezzlement, a lawmaker said Monday, quoting data. Data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Rep. Yang Jung-suk showed that a total of 327 embezzlement cases worth a total of 170 billion won ($126 million) had occurred at 78 financial firms from 2017 to August this year. According to the data, the amount of damage caused by embezzlements in the financial sector was increasing every yea

EconomyAug. 29, 2022

Korea hit by market volatility after Powell’s hawkish speech

South Korea’s financial authorities and brokerages on Monday warned of volatilities stemming from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole last week, with the private sector expressing more skepticism towards the associated risks. Powell on Friday delivered a hawkish remark saying that the rising interest rates will cause “some pain” to the US economy and that the US Fed will use their “tools forcefully” to combat the nation’s

MarketAug. 29, 2022

KT&G to build new packaging factory in Sejong

South Korean tobacco company KT&G said Monday it plans to build a new eco-friendly tobacco packaging factory in the central administrative hub of Sejong City. Under the 180 billion won ($133.5 million) project, the factory will be constructed at Sejong Mirae Industrial Estate, a government-developed area for local manufacturing companies, by 2025. KT&G said the factory will produce tobacco packaging such as cigarette papers and boxes, based on a cutting-edge logistics automation syste

ConsumerAug. 29, 2022

Minister says inflation law ‘highly likely’ to violate FTA

South Korean Minister of Trade Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang said Monday the US Inflation Reduction Act that bans tax benefits for electric vehicles built outside of North America is highly likely to breach the US-Korea FTA and WTO rules. Asked whether the act violated the US-Korea FTA or WTO rules during a parliamentary committee meeting on trade and industry, Lee said, “It is highly likely to be violating those rules and we will bring a complaint at the WTO if necessary.” T

IndustryAug. 29, 2022

Probe launched over Morgan Stanley short selling in Korea

South Korea’s top financial watchdog is investigating stock short selling practices at Morgan Stanley’s Seoul office, people familiar with the matter said Monday, in the latest sign of a crackdown set to expand this week to regulate the practice that profits from a drop in stock prices. The Financial Supervisory Service will look at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs next, an official at the watchdog said, noting: “These firms are the top priority because most of the short sellin

MarketAug. 29, 2022

Hanwha chief’s eldest son nominated as vice chairman

Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, has been tentatively promoted to the group’s vice chairman as he is expected to take on a bigger role in the group’s management, Hanwha Group said Monday. The decision came about a year after the 38-year-old became the CEO of Hanwha Solutions, the group’s company with business areas in multinational energy services, petrochemical and real estate in September 2021. According to the announcement, Kim has a

IndustryAug. 29, 2022

Execs paid over W500m up 13% in H1

Data from market intelligence firm FnGuide showed Monday that 885 officials at companies listed on the Korean stock market were paid 500 million won ($370,000) or higher in the first half of this year, up 13.3 percent from 781 people in the same period last year. According to FnGuide’s data, the total amount of the officials’ remuneration logged 1.23 trillion won, a 5.2 percent increase on year. About 57.1 percent of the officials were paid between 500 million won and 1 billion won

IndustryAug. 29, 2022

Lotte grants W14b to KAIST for R&D

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth largest conglomerate, has decided to donate 14 billion won ($10.4 million) to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for various research and development efforts, officials said Monday. The announcement came about half a year after Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin met KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung at the university in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province, in February. According to the officials, Lotte Group’s 10 subsidiaries inc

TechnologyAug. 29, 2022

‘An alien working at Samsung,' S. Korean tech giant unveils new avatar

Samsung Electronics revealed Monday a teaser which featured its new virtual alien avatar named G-Nusmas. According to Samsung’s video posted online, the small blue extraterrestrial invader, originally from a planet called Nowus-129, accidentally arrived on Earth through a crash landing. The alien’s name is Samsung spelt backwards, while the name of its home planet is a whimsical wordplay on the address of the company’s headquarters. The alien’s full background story wi

IndustryAug. 29, 2022

S. Korea's financial regulator inspecting Morgan Stanley for short selling

South Korea's financial watchdog has launched an inspection into Morgan Stanley as part of efforts to intensify monitoring of stock short selling that has been blamed for excessive market swings, industry sources said Monday. The inspection came about two weeks after Lee Bok-hyun, the head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), underlined the need to keep tabs on illegal short selling, saying his agency is preparing to inspect brokerages where such transactions have been concentrated d

EconomyAug. 29, 2022

Hyundai Rotem wins W499b K2 tank deal in Poland

Hyundai Rotem Co., South Korea's sole tank manufacturer, said Monday it has signed a 499 billion won ($372 million) K2 tank deal in Poland. Hyundai Rotem signed the deal with Poland's state defense procurement agency to build 180 K2 tanks for the Polish military by December 2027, the company said in a statement. "The planned shipment of K2 tanks will be the first of its kind for South Korea and it will help the country emerge as a major player in the defense industry market (in the long ter

IndustryAug. 29, 2022

Seoul shares open markedly lower on Powell's resolve to continue aggressive monetary tightening

South Korea's stock market opened sharply down Monday, tracking Wall Street's rout last Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed the US central bank would continue its fight against four-decade high inflation. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 57.55 points, or 2.32 percent, to trade at 2,423.48 as of 9:15 a.m. "Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time," Powell said duri

MarketAug. 29, 2022

S. Korea vows policy efforts against herd behavior in market

South Korea plans to take measures to stabilize the financial market if there is excessive herd behavior in the wake of the US central bank's annual Jackson Hole meeting, a senior government official said Monday. First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun also said the government will closely monitor Korea's currency and bond markets with "extra" caution as the domestic market has moved in tandem with US markets. US stock markets nosedived Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

EconomyAug. 29, 2022

BOK cannot stop tightening before Fed, governor says

The Bank of Korea will tighten policy to corral inflation but cannot end it before the US Federal Reserve, BOK Gov. Rhee Chang-yong said Saturday at the annual Jackson Hole meeting in Wyoming -- a three-day global economic retreat of central bankers held in-person this year after a pandemic hiatus in 2020 and 2021. “We are now independent from the government, but we are not independent from the Fed,” Rhee said on the last day of the gathering, in an interview with Reuters, noting th

EconomyAug. 28, 2022

S. Korean firms pressured by global buyers to use renewable energy

Amid the importance of renewable electricity highlighted in global supply chains, 28.8 percent of large South Korean manufacturers are facing pressure from global buyers to use renewable energy in the production process, a survey from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed Sunday. Regarding the requested timeline by the global buyers, the survey showed that 33.3 percent of South Korean manufacturers were asked to use renewable energy by 2025 while 9.5 percent of foreign companies de

IndustryAug. 28, 2022

Dong-A Pharma releases skin cleansing products

Fation, the cosmetics brand of Dong-A Pharmaceutical, said Friday it has launched its weak acid cleansing products – Nosca9 Cleansing Gel and Nosca9 Cleansing Water – to cater to customer demand for skincare products that counteract skin damage caused by wearing face masks in the summer’s heat and humidity. South Korea’s summers are notorious for being hot and humid. Humidity causes dust particles and other harmful substances to attach to the skin more readily, blocking

ConsumerAug. 28, 2022

Kumho Tire to commercialize smart tire system

South Korean tiremaker Kumho Tire said Friday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with local auto retailer Van Korea on July 29 to accelerate the commercialization of its smart tire system. As part of the business agreement, the tire company will supply its “Majesty X Solus“ tires for the retailer’s Hyundai Carnival lineup, while also providing tire monitoring and sensing technologies. The tire company has been working with local communication firms to develop a smar

MobilityAug. 28, 2022