S. Korea launches 'early warning system' on supply chains of 4,000 key industry items

South Korea on Friday launched an early warning system to monitor some 4,000 key industry materials and items to prevent the recurrence of a crisis similar to the ongoing supply crunch of urea solution used to reduce emissions in diesel vehicles. The shortage of urea solution has exposed vulnerabilities in the country's supply chain and prompted the government to set up a task force on economic security meant to ensure stable supply chains. Items listed on the early warning system include magn

IndustryNov. 26, 2021

Hyundai Construction Equipment bags big orders from Russia this month

Construction machinery maker Hyundai Construction Equipment said Friday it has obtained orders for 534 units of construction equipment from Russia this month. The deals with unidentified Russian miners and builders include orders for 510 excavators, 15 wheel loaders and nine skid-steer loaders, Hyundai Construction Equipment said in an emailed statement. The construction equipment will be delivered by the first quarter of next year and used at the construction sites and coal mines in Russia, t

IndustryNov. 26, 2021

Hyundai Motor's Ioniq 5 is German Car of the Year

Hyundai Motor Group said Friday that its fully electric model Ioniq 5 has been picked as the German car of the year.  The judges, comprised of 20 automotive journalists working in Germany, evaluated the vehicle based on categories including practicality, driving performance, innovation, market fit as well as a separate riding test.  A total of 45 newly released cars competed for this year’s award. Except Ioniq 5, Peugeot 308, Kia EV6, Audi E-Tron GT and Porsche 911 GT3 made i

IndustryNov. 26, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower amid renewed virus concerns

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, largely as investors worry over the escalating coronavirus situation. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 3.02 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,977.25 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Kospi started off weak amid losses on the chemical and tech heavyweights. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics edged down 0.14 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix traded flat, and internet portal operator Naver lost 1.13 percent. Pharmac

MarketNov. 26, 2021

Foreign ownership of S. Korean land rises 1.3% in H1

Foreign ownership of South Korean land expanded 1.3 percent in the first half of the year from six months earlier, the land ministry said Friday. Foreigners owned 256.7 square kilometers of land here as of end-June, up 3.39 million square meters from the end of December last year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The amount accounts for 0.26 percent of South Korea's total land area and is slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan in New York. The valu

EconomyNov. 26, 2021

Lotte Group hires outsiders to lead key businesses

  Lotte Group has hired Kim Sang-hyun, former vice president of market rival Homeplus, to lead Lotte Shopping, which controls all the group’s retail business, officials said Thursday. The group’s hotel department will be led by Ahn Se-jin, former CEO of the Korean restaurant chain Nolboo. Kim Gyo-hyun, former head of Lotte Chemical, was promoted to vice president in recognition of his achievements in restoring the fortunes of the group’s chemical business to pre-pandemic

ConsumerNov. 25, 2021

LG Group reshuffles top brass, promotes LG Electronics CEO

LG Electronics CEO Kwon Bong-seok has been named the chief operating officer of LG Corp., LG Group’s holding company, becoming the No. 2 man at the nation’s fourth-largest conglomerate, in a major executive reshuffle announced on Thursday. The 58-year-old was awarded with vice chairman title, joining the top brass assisting Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. The group currently has three vice chairmen: LG Energy Solution CEO Kwon Young-soo, LG Household & Health Care CEO Cha Suk-yong and LG

IndustryNov. 25, 2021

Dunamu completes first NFT sales

Dunamu, the operator of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, said Wednesday that it sold its first NFT art: two paintings by the famous Korean pop artist Jang Koal. The first art piece, “Mirage Cat 3,” started its bidding price from 0.0416 bitcoins, worth 2.8 million won ($2,350), and was sold on Wednesday on the Upbit NFT Beta platform to a bidder who had offered 3.5098 bitcoins, or about 240 million won, the company said. The nonfungible token, digital counterparts of real-world asse

MarketNov. 25, 2021

JB Financial opens integrated big data platform

JB Financial Group said on Thursday it has established an integrated big data platform which brings together the data of all of its affiliates and uses artificial intelligence technology to offer customized service. The “data hub” converges the financial data of affiliates and public data, and applies the group’s internal cloud technology to allow data analysis from an integrated perspective, JB Financial said. Using the data hub, affiliates of JB Financial can analyze custom

IndustryNov. 25, 2021

KFCC holds webinar with Thai counterpart

The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives will hold a joint webinar with its counterpart in Thailand on Friday under the theme “The Role of Financial Cooperatives and Future Directions.” The webinar is designed to discover the value of financial cooperatives in the two countries and seek ways to cooperate, the KFCC said. Students and officials at cooperatives as well as participants from Myanmar, Laos, Fiji and Uganda will take part in the three-hour webinar. The semin

IndustryNov. 25, 2021

Jobs for 30-somethings cut for 7 consecutive quarter

SEJONG -- The number of paid jobs for South Koreans in their 30s has declined for a seventh consecutive quarter. This could indicate a lack of job security for the core working age bracket, despite recent improvement in hiring indexes for other age groups. Statistics Korea said Thursday that the tally for salaried jobs increased by 681,000 on-year for all age groups in the second quarter. By age, the figure decreased only among those aged between 30-39. Those in their 60s and older topped the

MarketNov. 25, 2021

Samsung Biologics, GreenLight to produce COVID vaccine for Africa

Samsung Biologics and Boston-based biotech firm GreenLight Biosciences have teamed up to help make COVID-19 vaccines more accessible to people in poor countries, especially in Africa, the Korean pharmaceutical company said Thursday.  Under a contract manufacturing deal signed earlier in the day, Samsung Biologics will produce drug substances for GreenLight’s messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate.  The drugmaking unit of Samsung Group said it is adding new production facilit

IndustryNov. 25, 2021

Hyundai to test Level 4 self-driving system next year

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday it would test its Level 4 autonomous driving system in downtown Seoul under its new mobility service “RoboRide,” using its fully electric compact Ioniq 5 as early as next year. The Korean auto giant said running RoboRide will be set the grounds for the company’s advancement of self-driving tech, in a step toward the commercialization of uncrewed mobility services. “We’ve been developing autonomous driving technology for all to mov

IndustryNov. 25, 2021

Seoul motor show presents future of sustainable mobility

South Korea’s biannual auto show kicked off Thursday with global carmakers showcasing sustainable, smart and sophisticated mobility to lure local drivers with future technologies designed to revitalize the pandemic-hit automotive industry. The Seoul Mobility Show offers its stage for one world premiere, five Asia premieres and 14 Korea premiers of six different local and foreign brands. About 100 car manufacturers and mobility companies from six different countries joined the show simulta

MobilityNov. 25, 2021

Seoul stocks down for 3rd day on hawkish Fed, BOK's rate hike

South Korean stocks closed lower to extend their losing streak to a third day Thursday as the country's central bank raised its key policy rate to fight inflation and household debt. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) retreated 14.02 points, or 0.47 percent, to close at 2,980.27 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 587 million shares worth some 9.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 642 to 228. Foreigners and institutions offloaded a ne

MarketNov. 25, 2021

Kakao Brain to give Korean-language AI an upgrade

Kakao Brain, an AI technology research and development subsidiary of Kakao, said Thursday it will upgrade its Korean-language AI model to go full swing in promoting the development of local AI industry. According to the AI company, it plans to enhance the deep learning process of KoGPT, Kako Brain’s Korean- language AI model, and make it 100 times more efficient by using Google Cloud’s supercomputer, Google Tensor Processing Unit. Google TPU is a large-scale computing system that

TechnologyNov. 25, 2021

NongHyup says virtual human ‘hired’ for digitalization

NongHyup Financial Group said Thursday that it has “hired” an artificial intelligence-powered member of staff to work along with the lender’s human staff, as part of its effort to digitize its operations and enhance the customer experience. A virtual human figure powered by artificial intelligence will assist staff at its key subsidiary NongHyup Bank from January, officials said. This is the first time a bank has officially recognized an AI machine as a member of staff, give

EconomyNov. 25, 2021

Kakao co-CEO Yeo wins another 4-year term

Kakao Corp. said Thursday co-CEO Yeo Min-soo has been named to lead the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger, KakaoTalk, for another four years. Kakao said its board of directors also selected Ryu Young-joon, who has served as the chief of Kakao's payment arm, Kakao Pay, as a new co-CEO of Kakao. Yeo, who has been leading Kakao since March 2018, will begin a second four-year term as a co-CEO with Ryu at a board meeting slated for March. "I will faithfully serve my role in this

IndustryNov. 25, 2021

S. Korea to devise measures for MSCI-developed market status: minister

South Korea's chief economic policymaker said Thursday the country will come up with measures to win developed market status from Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). South Korea has been pushing for the upgrade from the current position on the emerging markets list, as the global index provider will have its annual review in June next year. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki earlier said the country deserves to win the developed market status "in light of its economic situation and fo

EconomyNov. 25, 2021

Winter season operation curb on coal plants in store to cut dust emissions

South Korea plans to halt the operation of some coal-powered plants over the winter in a move to reduce fine dust emissions, the industry ministry said Thursday. The operation of eight to 16 coal-powered plants will be suspended from December through February, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. The country now has 53 coal plants. Up to 46 plants can be required to maintain their power output at 80 percent of capacity depending on the fine dust situation, the ministry ad

IndustryNov. 25, 2021