Customs office discovers illegal foreign purchases of Seoul apartments

Seoul Main Customs, the regional office of South Korea’s customs agency, said Tuesday that it discovered apartment purchases in Seoul by foreign nationals who used illicit funds or failed to report their purchases to authorities. Through investigations into their foreign exchange transactions, bank accounts and searches and seizures, 55 apartments were found to be involved in illegal purchases, worth about 84 billion won ($75.5 million) combined, the customs office said. The probe was car

EconomyApril 27, 2021

Nexon propels record growth through flexible telecommuting

After adopting a telecommuting system in February last year, Nexon has not only protected the safety of its staff but also witnessed an unprecedented growth despite a bruising pandemic year. According to the South Korean gaming giant, the company last year posted sales worth 3.13 trillion won ($2.81 billion), becoming the first Korean game firm to breach the 3 trillion-won mark. Nexon also saw its revenue in Korea surge 84 percent on-year. Behind its stellar performances stand Nexon’s

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Politicians push for bill to regulate cryptocurrency trading

Talk in political circles favors the legal acceptance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, despite the government’s skepticism over digital assets.  Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the ruling Democratic Party is working on a proposed legal framework that would embrace the trading of digital assets and regulate cryptocurrency markets. It has gained momentum largely due to the ample liquidity driven by the government’s monetary easing stance amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to indu

MarketApril 27, 2021

[Herald Interview] Pernod Ricard’s fight for millennials’ hearts comes with whisky and art

In an online auction early this month, Scotch whisky brand Royal Salute sold artworks inspired by the brand with the help of Seoul Auction. Bidders scrambled until the last minute to get hold of the items that ended up selling at prices higher than the company had expected. “It was really impressive to see these brand-inspired artworks sold out at such high prices,” said Florent Leroi, marketing director at the South Korean unit of global liquor company Pernod Ricard, during an int

ConsumerApril 27, 2021

S. Korea’s economy recovers to pre-pandemic levels: BOK

South Korea’s economy expanded 1.6 percent on-quarter in the first three months of the year, signaling a faster-than-expected recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels, central bank data showed Tuesday. Bolstered by improvement in private consumption and exports, “the 1.6 percent growth in the first quarter has pushed the real gross domestic product level higher than that of the last three months of 2019,” Park Yang-su, head of the economic statistics department at the Bank of Korea, sa

EconomyApril 27, 2021

Lotte Duty Free keeps No. 2 spot among global travel retailers: report

South Korea's Lotte Duty Free retained its second spot among global travel retailers in 2020, with China Duty Free Group (CDFG) leaping to the No. 1 position, an industry report showed Tuesday. Lotte Duty Free ranked second worldwide with 4.82 billion euros ($5.82 billion) in sales last year, the same standing as that a year earlier, according to the Moodie Davitt report. Lotte Duty Free benefited from Chinese resellers who buy products in large quantities and sell them back home, government s

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Hyundai Steel swings to black in Q1 on robust demand

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Tuesday it swung to the black in the first quarter from a year earlier on strong sales amid the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. For the three months that ended March 31, Hyundai Steel posted a net profit of 219.9 billion won ($197.8 million), shifting from a loss of 115.4 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company said price hikes of its products gave a boost to the quarterly bott

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Samsung SDI Q1 net skyrockets on strong EV battery sales

South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. said Tuesday its first-quarter earnings jumped on a low base effect and solid demand for electric vehicle (EV) battery products. Its net profit reached 150 billion won ($135 million) in the January-March period, up from 729 million won a year earlier, as it basked in a sharp rise in gains from equity ties with a display affiliate, Samsung SDI said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit soared 146.7 percent on-year to 133.2 billion won, and sales inc

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Samsung expands presence in Indian smartphone market in Q1: report

Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its presence in the Indian smartphone market in the first quarter of the year on the back of multiple new handsets, a report showed Tuesday, as the South Korean tech giant aims to fend off challenges from Chinese players. Samsung represented 20 percent of the smartphone shipments in India in the first quarter, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. The company remained in the runner-up spot in the Indian smartph

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Naver aims to expand presence in local web browser market with Whale

Naver Corp., South Korea's dominant internet portal and search engine, said Tuesday it aims to lead the local web browser market with its own product named Whale in three years. Whale -- a Chromium-based web browser released in October 2017 -- is the fourth mostly used web browsing tool in terms of the market share. Google Inc.'s Chrome topped the list with more than a whopping 60 percent. "Naver aims to top the local web browser market in three years," Kim Hyo, a Naver official, sai

IndustryApril 27, 2021

No. of farmers, fishermen down 9.5% last year from 5 years earlier

The number of South Koreans in the agro-fishery sector declined 9.5 percent last year from five years earlier amid rapid aging and younger people's movements to cities, data showed Tuesday. The number of people engaged in the farming and fishery segments totaled 2.64 million last year, compared with 2.92 million in 2015, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of households in the agro-fishery sector came to 1.18 million last year, down 4.5 percent from five years earlier. The

EconomyApril 27, 2021

World Bank and Korea Forest Service join together for ‘green cooperation’ amid climate crisis

Korea Forest Service and the World Bank joined together for a workshop in honor of the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund’s (KGGTF) Korean Green Innovation Day (KGID) last Friday. The workshop was held for the first anniversary of the joint cooperation between the two organizations, aimed to invigorate cooperation through sharing Korea’s success and experience and to promote Korea’s KGGTF project to the World Bank. The Forest Service drew interest from the World bank by introduci

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Samsung releases new enterprise SSD with upgraded performance

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's leading memory chip producer, on Tuesday released a high performing enterprise solid state drive (SSD) that supports the latest serial attached SCSI (SAS) interface. The PM1653 is the industry's first 24G SAS SSD made with sixth-generation V-NAND memory chips, according to Samsung, with its storage capacity ranging from 800 gigabytes to 30.72 terabytes for enterprise server systems. SAS is a high-speed data transfer interface used for servers or storage dev

IndustryApril 27, 2021

S-Oil shifts to black in Q1 on higher petrochem margins

S-Oil Corp., South Korea's No. 3 refiner, said Tuesday it turned to the black in the first quarter from a year earlier on rising prices of petrochemical products and inventory-related gains. S-Oil's net income reached 344.7 billion won ($310.1 million) in the January-March period, turning from a loss of 880.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Its logged a higher-than-expected operating profit of 629.2 billion won in the first quarter, the highest in five year

IndustryApril 27, 2021

S. Korea's venture investment touches record high in Q1

South Korea's investment in startups spiked nearly 61 percent in the first quarter of the year amid hopes of high returns, government data showed Tuesday. A total of 1.25 trillion won ($1.12 billion) was invested in promising venture firms and startups in the January-March period, up 61.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. It was the highest amount for the first quarter and the second-largest quarterly figure after the 1.41 trillion won f

EconomyApril 27, 2021

Samsung launches new robot vacuum cleaner with upgraded AI solutions

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday launched a new robot vacuum cleaner with upgraded artificial intelligence (AI) solutions here as the tech giant eyes to boost home appliance sales amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend. The BESPOKE JetBot AI vacuum cleaner comes in five colors at a price of 1.59 million won ($1,430). The product, which was first unveiled at the all-digital Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, is equipped with Intel's Movidius AI solution and utilizes LiDAR and 3-D sens

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Public agencies required to purchase only green cars

Public organizations will have to choose only eco-friendly cars when purchasing new automobiles, in line with the country's green energy drive, the industry ministry said Tuesday. "In order to speed up the transition, it is necessary to create new demands," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement. The eco-friendly cars refer to electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen fuel-cell cars, as well as hybrid models. South Korea launched a rule in 2016 that required publi

IndustryApril 27, 2021

Retail sales up 18.5% in March on spring promotions, revenge shopping

Retail sales in South Korea jumped 18.5 percent in March from a year earlier on the back of seasonal promotions by offline stores, with local consumers also turning to "revenge shopping" amid the prolonged virus pandemic. The combined sales of 26 major offline and online retailers reached 13.1 trillion won ($11.7 billion) last month, up from 11.1 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Sales from offline stores jumped

ConsumerApril 27, 2021

S. Korea to increase more shipping services amid freight price hike

South Korea said Tuesday it will strengthen support to exporters facing a hike in freight costs by increasing marine shipping services amid the recovery of global trade from the new coronavirus pandemic. Under the plan, South Korea plans to add two new scheduled services for the route to the Americas per month to cope with a shortage in shipping, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The government plans to add more ships for routes to Europe and Southeast Asia depending on

IndustryApril 27, 2021

S. Korea's demand for natural gas expected to rise 15% through 2034

South Korea's demand for natural gas is expected to rise 15 percent through 2034, data showed Tuesday, on the back of higher demand from hydrogen fuel cell cars and liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering ships. The country's annual demand for natural gas is expected to reach 47.9 million tons in 2034, compared with 41.7 million tons estimated for this year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Of the volume, the demand from the industrial segment is especially anticipated to

EconomyApril 27, 2021