Finance minister calls for preparations to submit extra budget

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki instructed officials Monday to thoroughly prepare to submit an extra budget proposal next week in a bid to buttress smaller merchants hit hard by the pandemic. The finance ministry is working on details about this year's first supplementary budget to provide another round of emergency relief funds to merchants and shop owners battered by the pandemic and virus restrictions. The ruling Democratic Party and the government are in consultations over the size of an extr

EconomyFeb. 22, 2021

Service output in 15 provinces, cities dips last year amid pandemic

Service output in 15 provinces and major cities declined last year as the new coronavirus outbreak dealt a blow to the face-to-face service segments, data showed Monday. The country's service output fell 2 percent last year, according to Statistics Korea. Excluding Seoul, six cities and nine provinces posted an on-year fall in service output in 2020. Service output in Seoul -- home to about one-fifth of the country's 51.6 million population -- gained 1.1 percent in 2020 on the back of robust g

EconomyFeb. 22, 2021

Korea Shipbuilding wins W540b in orders from Asia, Europe, Africa

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Monday that it has bagged orders worth a combined 540 billion won ($489 million) from Asia, Europe and Africa. The orders include nine ships -- three oil tankers, two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, three petrochemical carriers and a container carrier, Korea Shipbuilding said. The three very large crude-oil carriers to be built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. will be delivered to an Asian company from the second half of 2022.

IndustryFeb. 22, 2021

Hyundai Motor's honorary chairman to relinquish all directorship positions at affiliates

Hyundai Motor Group said Monday its honorary chairman will step down from all management positions at affiliates next month after 20 years of efforts to improve the carmaker's brand awareness and product quality. Hyundai Motor Group Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo will step down from his executive director position on the board of Hyundai Mobis Co., the group's auto parts affiliate, at a shareholders meeting on March 24, a company spokesman said. The honorary chairman's director term was orig

IndustryFeb. 22, 2021

LG launches new office-use projectors in S. Korea

LG Electronics Inc. on Monday launched new office-use laser projectors as the South Korean home appliance maker eyes to expand its presence in the business projector market. Two new models of LG ProBeam laser projectors -- BUPST and BF60PST -- are available in South Korea, according to the company. ProBeam is a business projector brand, which LG unveiled last year. For home-use projectors, the company has been using the CineBeam brand. LG said the two new ProBeam projectors boast 6,000 ANSI l

IndustryFeb. 22, 2021

Seoul stocks open tad higher on chip gains

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Monday on advances by chip heavyweights, backed by strong exports data. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 5.41 points, or 0.17 percent, to 3,113.03 points in the first 15 minutes amid foreign and institutional buying. South Korea's exports rose 16.7 percent on-year in the first 20 days of February on strong shipments of chips and autos, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Samsung Electronics added 0.97 percent,

MarketFeb. 22, 2021

S. Korea's exports grow 16.7% in first 20 days of Feb.

South Korea's exports rose 16.7 percent on-year in the first 20 days of February on strong shipments of chips and autos amid the pandemic, customs data showed Monday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $30.4 billion in the Feb. 1-20 period, compared with $26 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports advanced 24.1 percent on-year to $31.6 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.21 billion, the data showed. By sector, outbound shipments of

EconomyFeb. 22, 2021

S. Korean drug firms enjoy bumper year in 2020 despite pandemic

Major South Korean drug and biopharmaceutical companies saw their sales surge in 2020 from a year earlier despite the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Monday. Eleven local pharmaceutical companies in Asia's fourth-largest economy, including Green Cross Corp. and biopharmaceutical behemoth Celltrion Inc., registered sales of more than 1 trillion won ($910 million) last year. The remainder are Kolmar Korea Co., Celltrion Healthcare Co., Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., Yuhan Corp.

EconomyFeb. 22, 2021

Foreign investors net-sell S. Korean stocks this year

Foreign investors have remained net sellers of South Korean stocks due to their massive selling of top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Monday. As of Friday, offshore investors had sold a net 5.51 trillion won ($4.99 billion) worth of local stocks during the 33 sessions this year, according to the data from industry sources. Foreigners have been in net-selling mode for the past year, with their net selling amounting to 29.78 trillion won. Their net-selling position this year resulted

MarketFeb. 22, 2021

Posco develops stainless steel for desulfurization facilities

Posco has succeeded in developing core materials used in desulfurization facilities at industrial plants, the country’s largest steelmaker said Sunday. The company said it has developed three types of high-alloy stainless steel that can be used to make absorbers, gas-gas heaters and zero liquid discharge equipment, all of which can help cut sulfur oxide emissions in industrial plants such as steel plants, oil refineries and thermoelectric power plants. The new types of steel are speci

IndustryFeb. 21, 2021

Chip shortage only to exacerbate amid complex global issues

The world is undergoing an unprecedented dearth of microchips needed for a wide spectrum of everyday gadgets from gaming consoles, smartphones, tablets and home appliances to TVs, as well as automobiles that are increasingly being electrified. The current chip shortage appears to be the consequence of multiple global issues including the prolonging trade dispute between the United States and China, COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters occurring in regions with large semiconductor production

TechnologyFeb. 21, 2021

[News Focus] Power struggle? FSC, BOK bicker over revision of payment settlement law

Tensions between the nation’s financial regulator and its central bank are escalating. The two institutions are at odds over which one should hold supervisory authority in the area of online payment settlements, which are emerging as key financial transactions in this era of the digital economy. Payment settlement is the process through which a merchant receives the money that customers have paid for a particular product or service. Responding to increased demand for online payment sett

MarketFeb. 21, 2021

LIG Nex1 heads to IDEX 2021, knocks on Middle East market

LIG Nex1 said Sunday it is participating in the International Defense Exhibition and Conference 2021 to showcase its next-generation defense technologies. According to the South Korean aerospace and defense firm, it will display its medium-range surface-to-air missile M-SAM II, also known as Cheongung II, anti-tank guided missile Raybolt, wearable robot Lexo, unmanned surface vehicle Sea Sword and multipurpose, compact drone systems at the biennial defense expo that kicked off Sunday in Abu

IndustryFeb. 21, 2021

[News Focus] Call for transparency as gamers take issue with real odds of ‘random’ items

Last week, Nexon apologized for misleading users of the odds of receiving different types of probability-based items inside its fantasy adventure PC game MapleStory, becoming the first company here to admit that those “random” items have a preset draw probability. In an apology posted Friday on MapleStory’s official website, Nexon director Kang Won-ki said a misunderstanding occurred due to different interpretations of the word “random.” The company has used the

IndustryFeb. 21, 2021

Citigroup may divest Korean banking subsidiary

Citigroup has been mulling divestiture of its South Korean banking subsidiary, among other international consumer units, but is treading cautiously, reports and statements released as of Sunday showed. According to Bloomberg Law on Friday, the New York-based multinational banking giant has been considering divesting units tied to retail banking across the Asia-Pacific region, including those in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. The reports precede the rise of Citigroup’s in

MarketFeb. 21, 2021

South Korean unicorns take big leap with greater global presence

Going global has been a long shot for many South Korean startups despite their advanced services and products. But planned stock listings and mergers and acquisitions of Korean unicorns, including those for Coupang, Woowa Brothers and Hyperconnect, are raising expectations for local companies to grow their international reach. “The series of recent megadeals made in the startup sector here have moved the value of the entire Korean ecosystem up a notch,” said Lim Jung-wook, chief o

MarketFeb. 21, 2021

Samsung Display joins responsible business alliance

Samsung Display’s chief executive officer Choi Joo-sun is aiming to further embolden the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG)　involvement beginning this year. As part of this drive, the company announced Sunday that it joined the Responsible Business Alliance. The RBA is an international industry coalition that holds its members accountable to a code of conduct that aspires for a higher level of corporate ethics. More than 160 global companies are its members, inclu

IndustryFeb. 21, 2021

Brokerages rake in record-high credit loan interest of W1tr in 2020

South Korean securities firms generated nearly 1 trillion won ($904 million) worth of profit from interest paid by individuals who borrowed money to invest in stocks last year, according to data provided by the Korea Financial Investment Association Sunday. The combined interest on credit-based loans that 57 local brokerage houses collected from retail traders came to 997 billion won in 2020, having soared 33.4 percent on-year. It was also a fresh new high since the association began collecting

MarketFeb. 21, 2021

Airlines to retain air traffic rights without flying

The government is poised to further extend the period when airlines can suspend flights without losing their air traffic rights for the routes, as the pandemic continues to affect the aviation industry. According to sources close to the matter, the new extension is currently being “positively considered,” as the current extension comes to an end next month. “Given the prolonged pandemic, the measure is being positively considered to help support airlines,” one Transport

MobilityFeb. 21, 2021

Bitcoin is now worth more than its weight in gold

The price of Bitcoin surged to another record high over the weekend, becoming more expensive than 1 kilogram of gold. The digital coin was being traded for more than 65 million won ($58,800) as of Sunday morning, data from crypto exchange Upbit showed. Bitcoin’s rally came as domestic gold prices recently declined to hit a new 10-month low. Gold, which has long been a safe haven asset both in Korea and worldwide, stood at 62,967 won per 1 gram as of Friday. The largest cryptocurrency&

MarketFeb. 21, 2021