[Photo News] HiKR Grround

A media art tower displays content favored by younger people at an experience hall called HiKR Ground, set up at the Korea Tourism Organization in Seoul, Wednesday.

IndustryJuly 21, 2022

Prosecutors raid cryptocurrency exchanges in probe into Terraform crash

Prosecutors raided local cryptocurrency exchanges on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a fraud case in connection with the collapse of Terraform Labs’ digital coins, TerraUSD and Luna, officials said. A team of investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office began seizing transaction records and other material from Upbit and other local exchanges around 5 p.m., they said. Investors in TerraUSD and Luna filed complaints against Terraform Labs’ CEO Do Kwon

MarketJuly 20, 2022

S. Korea to introduce new hydrogen rating scheme in 2024

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Wednesday it is implementing a new clean hydrogen certification system from 2024 that evaluates corporate carbon footprints based on the amount of carbon emissions, not the type of production process. The new scheme will determine whether hydrogen can be classified as “low carbon” by analyzing the amount of carbon generated during its production -- the lower the emissions, the greater the incentives for companies. Th

July 20, 2022

Incheon Airport targets 106m travelers a year

Incheon Airport is pumping up its Level 4 construction plan, a project to expand its second passenger terminal, to maintain its leading position as an air transport hub in East Asia. The 4.84 trillion won ($3.69 billion) Level 4 construction plan involves a major upgrade of the airport’s infrastructure, through measures such as expanding its flight network and building a new runway. This year, the Incheon International Airport Corp. will focus on the expansion of Terminal 2 and its parki

MobilityJuly 20, 2022

FKI says wages rose too much

The Federation of Korean Industries said on Wednesday that the average annual wage per employee of listed companies rose 43.4 percent in the 10 years preceding 2021. During that time, their average revenue only rose 12.5 percent. The average annual salary per worker jumped from 55.93 million won ($42,600) in 2011 to 80.16 million won in 2021, while the listed firms’ revenue per employee went from 960 million won to about 1.1 billion won in the same period, the lobby of the nation’s

IndustryJuly 20, 2022

Seoul shares end higher on U.S. rallies

South Korean stocks ended higher Wednesday, as investor sentiment was boosted by Wall Street gains and the expected resumption of Russian gas to Europe. The Korean won gained ground against the U.S. dollar. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 15.88 points, or 0.67 percent, to close at 2,386.85. Trading volume was moderate at 328.96 million shares worth 7.36 trillion won ($5.61 billion), with gainers outstripping decliners 630 to 228. Retail investors picked up shares worth a net 65.73 bil

MarketJuly 20, 2022

ICT minister calls for caution on joining Chip 4

Amid pressure building on South Korea to join a US-led chip alliance that strategically isolates China from the global semiconductor supply chain, Science Minister Lee Jong-ho on Wednesday said in rare remarks that the government should be careful in making such a decision, citing its impact on other industries. “I have talked to business executives who have been to China. It’s difficult to talk about the details, as it is an ongoing matter, but we have to make a decision that will

TechnologyJuly 20, 2022

Won gains after Yellen’s visit, weakening preference in safe havens

SEJONG -- The Korean currency gained against the US dollar on Wednesday, a day after finance ministers from South Korea and the US said they could take actions like supplying liquidity for stabilization of the foreign exchange market. The price of the Korean currency climbed by 0.5 won per dollar from a trading session earlier to close at 1,312.9 won. After peaking at 1,326.1 won last Friday, the greenback fell for the third consecutive trading session. This could be attributab

MarketJuly 20, 2022

East Sea tops list of Koreans’ preferred vacation destination

More Koreans plan to spend their summer vacation this year on the country‘s east coast instead of flying to the southern resort island of Jeju to save money amid rising inflation, a survey showed Wednesday. The year’s busiest travel week is expected to be from July 30 to August 5, as usual, and households plan to spend an average of 952,000 won, according to the survey conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The survey showed that 24.7 percent of responde

IndustryJuly 20, 2022

GS Energy rebrands EV charging biz as GS Connect

GS Energy, an energy arm of South Korean conglomerate GS Group, said Wednesday it has renamed its electric vehicle charging subsidiary as GS Connect. The subsidiary is a joint corporation, created by GS Energy and local EV charging firm Gntel. The two companies hold 50 percent of shares each. By stressing its identity as being part of GS Group, the subsidiary said it hopes to expand business and bolster customer trust. The name change also includes the company’s promise to connect with

IndustryJuly 20, 2022

Samsung to debut new foldable phones on Aug. 10

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday sent out invites to the 2022 Galaxy Unpacked event for its new foldable phones that will be held online via its official website at 10 p.m. (Korea time) on Aug. 10. Titled “Unfold Your World,” the event will feature Samsung’s latest Z series, including the larger Z Fold 4 and the more compact Z Flip 4, along with its smart watch Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds wireless earphones. Since last year, Samsung has held two separate unveiling events fo

TechnologyJuly 20, 2022

S. Korean disease institute, Moderna agree to collaborate in SFTS mRNA vaccine development

South Korea's state-run National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) said Wednesday it has reached an agreement with Moderna Inc., a US biotech company, to cooperate in the development of a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidate for severe fever and thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS). The institute said the deal, signed Monday, was its first joint project agreement with an overseas pharmaceutical company. The institute said it expects the research to help elevate the center's researc

EconomyJuly 20, 2022

Top 1,000 firms' debt ratio more than halves over 2 decades

The debt ratio of South Korea's leading 1,000 companies by sales has more than halved over the past 21 years, pointing to a sharp increase in their financial health, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The average debt-to-equity ratio of those big companies stood at 160 percent in 2021, compared with 323 percent in 2000, according to the Korea CXO Institute. A key barometer of financial soundness, the ratio is calculated by dividing a company's total liabilities by its stockholders

IndustryJuly 20, 2022

Stock settlements drop 27 % in H1: KSD

The amount of stock settlements here plunged 27 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, largely due to a slump in the global stock market, data showed Wednesday. In the January-June period, a total of 203.9 trillion won ($156 billion) worth of stock settlements were made through the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), down 27.3 percent from a year ago, according to the data. The tally also shrank 11.6 percent from six months earlier. The KSD said stock settlements were on a de

EconomyJuly 20, 2022

S. Korean economy feared to slow down amid external uncertainty: govt.

The South Korean economy is feared to slow down, as inflationary pressure has mounted and export growth could lose steam amid deteriorating external economic conditions, the finance ministry said Wednesday. Market volatility and global economic downside risks further increased, led by the Federal Reserve's fast rate hikes, China's economic slowdown, and the protracted war between Russia and Ukraine, the ministry said in its monthly economic assessment report, called the Green Book. "Domesti

EconomyJuly 20, 2022

Samsung Bioepis' biosimilar candidate SB12 under approval review in Europe, S. Korea

S outh Korean biopharmaceutical firm Samsung Bioepis Co. was in the process of acquiring regulatory approval from European and South Korean drug authorities for SB12, a paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) treatment biosimilar candidate, industry sources said Wednesday. The company has submitted approval applications for SB12, a more affordable version of Soliris, a drug originally developed by U.S.-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Ministr

IndustryJuly 20, 2022

Hyundai to supply 50 IONIQ 5 models to Japanese taxi firm

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday it will supply 50 IONIQ 5 all-electric vehicles to a Japanese taxi company from August. Hyundai Motor has recently signed a deal with Kyoto-based MK Taxi to gradually supply the 50 zero-emission models to the Japanese company, the company said in a statement. The IONIQ 5 is embedded with Hyundai Motor Group's EV-only platform E-GMP and can travel up to 618 kilometers on a single charge with a 72.6 kWh battery pack, it said. MK Taxi plans t

IndustryJuly 20, 2022

Seoul shares open higher on US gains

South Korean stocks got off to a strong start Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 32.69 points, or 1.38 percent, to trade at 2,403.66 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, US stocks rallied on better-than-expected corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.43 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite surged 3.11 percent. In Seoul, most big-cap shares gathered ground, with techs and financi

MarketJuly 20, 2022

Major firms' economic contribution jumps 20% over past 9 years

Major companies in South Korea have seen their total economic contribution soar 20 percent over the past nine years thanks to their robust growth, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The value of economic contribution created by the country's top 100 firms by sales came to 1,238 trillion won ($950 billion) last year, up 206.5 trillion won from 2012, according to CEO Score. Economic contribution refers to the economic value of a corporation's business activities shared among such interested parti

EconomyJuly 20, 2022

S. Korea's dependence on Japanese materials hits all-time low in H1

South Korea's dependence on Japanese materials and parts fell to an all-time low in the first half of this year, three years after Tokyo's control of exports of key materials bound for Seoul, data showed Wednesday. Imports of Japanese materials, parts and equipment came to US$20.07 billion during the January-June period, accounting for 15.4 percent of South Korea's overall purchase of those goods, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It is the low

EconomyJuly 20, 2022