Seoul shares fall sharply ahead of key economic events in US

South Korean stocks fell sharply Tuesday ahead of key economic events in the United States later this week. The local currency traded weaker against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 23.45 points, or 0.84 percent, to 2,780.86, ending a two-session winning streak. Trade volume was moderate at 532.3 million shares worth 11.5 trillion won ($8.28 billion), with decliners sharply outnumbering gainers 691 to 195. Foreigners and institutions sold a net 30 billion won a

MarketJuly 2, 2024

Hana Bank’s extended forex trading kicks off on smooth run

Hana Bank’s foreign exchange trading room in Seoul, the largest in South Korea, completed its first extended trading session on Tuesday. Starting Monday, Korea extended its foreign currency trading hours, pushing the closing time from 3:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. the following day. This move is part of Korea’s strategy to enhance its financial market and attract more foreign capital, with won-dollar trading now available until 5 p.m. in London and 1 p.m. in New York. Additionally, foreign fin

EconomyJuly 2, 2024

[Herald Interview] Vietnam's MB Bank bets big on Seoul-Hanoi ties

Vietnamese state lender MB Bank, also known as Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank, will launch a mobile app for South Korean nationals living in the country in August, seeing potential in the strengthening ties between the two countries. “Vietnamese banks are yet to offer specialized service for Koreans living in the country, making them rely on the branches of Korean banks,” MB Bank Chairman Luu Trung Thai said during an interview in Seoul on Tuesday. Luu Trung Thai was in Korea w

IndustryJuly 2, 2024

[Business Diplomacy] Time matters more than money in engineering lobbying prowess

Korean companies should focus on boosting their "still-nascent" lobbying power by spending the time to understand policymakers' needs and by building a strong network regardless of the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election in November, according to legal and trade advisers from Lee & Ko, a prominent law firm in Korea. Companies around the globe are paying keen attention to how US policy directions will diverge depending on who becomes the next US president: the incu

IndustryJuly 2, 2024

LG Energy Solution lands major LFP battery deal with Renault

LG Energy Solution, South Korea's largest electric vehicle battery maker, has secured its first major order for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries from French auto giant Renault Group's EV unit Ampere. The contract, announced in Paris on Monday, will see LG Energy Solution supplying pouch LFP batteries for Renault’s next-generation electric vehicles over five years, from late 2025 to 2030. It involves producing about 39 gigawatt-hours of batteries, enough to power approximately 5

MobilityJuly 2, 2024

Cyber attacks using generative AI on rise: SK Shieldus

Cyberattacks using generative artificial intelligence, or targeting the weak points of the new technology are on the rise, SK Shieldus, a leading security service company in Korea said on Tuesday. In a media seminar, SK Shieldus and EQST, the company's white-hat hackers group, presented its findings on the rising hacking trends using AI and underscored the importance of raising awareness and taking preventive measures to reduce damage. “Large Language Models are being used actively to

IndustryJuly 2, 2024

Unionized Samsung workers to stage 3-day walkout

Unionized workers of Samsung Electronics have said they will stage a three-day walkout beginning July 8, as their negotiations with management over wages and working conditions have so far failed. The National Samsung Electronics Union, the largest among multiple Samsung Electronics unions with some 28,400 workers, or 22 percent of the total workforce, announced the decision on Monday evening livestreaming on YouTube. “Any further peaceful strike is meaningless,” said Son Woo-mok, pr

IndustryJuly 2, 2024

LG Energy Solution secures mass supply of lithium from Australian firm

LG Energy Solution said Tuesday that it had struck a deal to secure a large-scale lithium supply with Australian mining firm Liontown Resources, bolstering its global supply chain of key raw materials for electric vehicle batteries. According to the Korean firm, the contract guarantees about 1.75 million tons of lithium spodumene concentrate over the next 15 years. The supply is enough to produce batteries for approximately 5 million EVs with a range of at least 500 kilometers per charge. LG Ene

CompaniesJuly 2, 2024

LS Cable wins W1tr submarine cable deal in California

LS Cable & System said Tuesday that it has signed a deal worth 100 billion won ($72 million) with LS Power Grid California, a transmission network operator in the US. LS Power Grid California, a subsidy of LS Power -- a New York-based energy and power infrastructure operation and investment company -- will be a key partner in the venture. With the contract, LS Cable & System will be the first supplier of submarine cables to the western region of the US. The newly secured deal involves th

CompaniesJuly 2, 2024

KITA opens Dallas center to boost business ties with US

The Korea International Trade Association announced Tuesday the opening of its new US office in Dallas, Texas. The opening event held on Monday was attended by 50 dignitaries and representatives from both governments and related businesses, including KITA Chairman Yoon Jin-sik, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson and Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Houston Jung Young-ho. The Dallas center, which aims to support trading issues of Korean firms from their market entry to building local

IndustryJuly 2, 2024

Seoul shares start lower despite US gains

South Korean stocks opened slightly lower Tuesday despite overnight gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 7.76 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,796.55 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, Wall Street closed slightly higher, while investors awaited US labor market data and the Federal Reserve minutes due later this week to seek clues about the interest rate outlook. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq went up 0.

MarketJuly 2, 2024

Inflation slows to 11-month low of 2.4% in June

South Korea's consumer prices slowed to an 11-month low in June, though prices of fresh food items and petroleum products remained high, data showed Tuesday. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 2.4 percent on-year last month, compared with a 2.7 percent on-year rise a month earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It was the third consecutive month that the price decelerated and stayed below 3 percent, and June's figure marked the lowest level since July 2023,

EconomyJuly 2, 2024

Samsung Electronics union in South Korea declares strike

A workers' union at Samsung Electronics in South Korea said on Monday it would launch a general strike until its demands for better pay and time off were met, warning of more damaging action against the country's most powerful conglomerate than its one-day walkout last month. The National Samsung Electronics Union, whose roughly 28,000 members make up over a fifth of the firm's workforce, is planning to begin the strike on July 8, asking the company for commitments such as improve

EconomyJuly 1, 2024

Business arrears of self-employed hits all-time high in Q1: report

The amount of overdue business loans taken by self-employed business owners in South Korea surpassed 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion) for the first time ever in the first quarter of this year, marking the highest figure ever since the government started tallying the figure in 2009. Overdue business loans of self-employed business owners were an accumulated 10.8 trillion won as of late March, according to a report the Bank of Korea submitted to Rep. Yang Bu-nam of the main opposition Democratic Par

EconomyJuly 1, 2024

Celltrion's Stelara biosimilar recommended for EU approval

Celltrion said Monday that CT-P43, its ustekinumab biosimilar referencing Stelara, received an approval recommendation from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use. Stelara is Janssen's top-selling drug for psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The global market for ustekinumab last year was estimated at around $20 billion, Celltrion added. “CHMP’s recommendation plays a decisive role in the EMA&

IndustryJuly 1, 2024

Antitrust watchdog to sanction AliExpress for violating e-commerce laws

The Fair Trade Commission has launched formal proceedings to sanction Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress for alleged violations of e-commerce laws. According to industry sources on Monday, the FTC recently issued a review report outlining sanctions against AliExpress for failing to report its basic business information to the government. Under the Act on the Consumer Protection in E-Commerce, operators of e-commerce platforms must report their business name, email address, internet domain name

IndustryJuly 1, 2024

Global memory chip market picks up amid AI boom

The global memory chip market is picking up on the back of the artificial intelligence boom, with the chip price expected to rise in the second half of this year, according to industry sources on Monday. In the wake of a recovery in demand for server and AI chips, such as High Bandwidth Memory chips, the average sales price of DRAM chips is forecast to increase by 8 to 13 percent in the July-September period when compared to the previous quarter, TrendForce, a Taiwan-based chip market tracker sa

IndustryJuly 1, 2024

Seoul shares up for 2nd day ahead of key events

South Korean stocks finished a tad higher Monday as investors took a breather ahead of the release of the Fed minutes and the second-quarter earnings guidance of Samsung Electronics. The local currency fell against the US dollar on the first day of won-dollar transactions being extended until 2 a.m. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 6.49 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,804.31. Trade volume was slim at 452.5 million shares worth 9.8 trillion won ($7.1 billion), with losers beati

MarketJuly 1, 2024

SK On enters emergency mode amid sluggish performance

SK On, the battery unit of South Korean chip-to-construction conglomerate SK Group, said Monday it will freeze the annual pay of all executive-level officials until it turns to profit, declaring emergency management amid its sluggish performance. The company decided to drastically revamp all working processes, including resource distribution, to improve operational efficiency in response to the changing industry environment as global electric vehicle markets are in a stagnation phase, known as t

IndustryJuly 1, 2024

Korea’s chip exports reach all-time high in June

South Korea’s semiconductor exports soared to a record high in June, backed by strong global demand, data from the Trade Ministry showed Monday, helping the country's exports to continue their upward trajectory. The country’s total exports stood at $57.07 billion in June, jumping 5.1 percent on-year, and imports came to $49.07 billion, shedding 7.5 percent on-year. As a result, Korea posted a trade surplus of $8 billion, marking a ninth consecutive month of surplus. The surplus

EconomyJuly 1, 2024