Hanwha Solutions triples production of safe plastic material

Hanwha Solutions said Monday it will triple production of the eco-friendly plastic material Eco-DEHCH to respond to a growing market demand. According to the South Korean solar-to-chemical company, it has completed the expansion of its Eco-DEHCH facility in Ulsan, increasing the annual production capacity from 15,000 metric tons to maximum 65,000 tons. The expansion cost 45 billion won ($40.7 million). Eco-DEHCH is a type of plasticizer, a substance added to a plastic to make it softer and mo

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

Samsung’s jailed heir gives up appeal

After Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong decided not to appeal last week’s court ruling, his absence from the country’s top conglomerate was finalized. With Lee in jail, the conglomerate won’t be able to pull off new sizable investments, market observers said. According to lawyer Lee In-jae on Monday, the Samsung heir expressed his will to respect the court ruling that sentenced him to two and half years in prison in a retrial of the former president‘s brib

TechnologyJan. 25, 2021

Kakao Bank to recruit over 100 workers in H1

Kakao Bank, South Korea’s leading Internet-only bank, said on Monday that it is hiring more than 100 employees in its push to ramp up digital innovation.  The lender said it plans to hire experienced talent in eight areas -- financial IT development, risk management, business development, service plan, compliance, audit, and customer services -- in the first half of the year. After the latest talent hunting, the company’s headcount, which currently stands at 937, will exceed 1

EconomyJan. 25, 2021

Hyundai Mipo wins chemicals carrier deal from Europe

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., a mid-sized shipyard here, said Monday that it has won a 80.2 billion won ($73 million) order to build two petrochemical carriers for a European company. The deal calls for the shipyard to deliver the vessels by March next year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Hyundai Mipo Dockyard is a listed unit of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., the subholding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. Korea Shipbuilding, which has three shipbui

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

[Herald Interview] Microbiome key to personalized health supplements

While the human body is composed of some 30 trillion cells, the number of microorganisms, including bacteria, outnumber the cells to about 38 trillion, and they have tremendous effects on our physical health. Now with advanced technologies, individuals will soon be able to analyze the genetic information of microbials in their guts so they can find personalized health supplements with “optimal” effects, Cho Yang-hee, the vice president of Amway Korea said in an interview with The

ConsumerJan. 25, 2021

Daewoong to start phase 3 trial of COVID-19 preventive

Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Monday that it plans to conduct a clinical phase 3 trial for its drug targeted at preventing COVID-19. 　 The company received an approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to begin the last stage of clinical trials for the drug, Foistar, on Friday. “Foistar is convenient to administer as oral medication. Its mechanism is expected to work best in the early phase of viral replications. As the drug would hold efficacy against viral mutations, we hope it

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

Direct purchasing from overseas increases by 71% in 2020 with COVID-19: Malltail

While global travel has come to a virtual standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people have turned to buying goods directly from overseas retailers last year, a delivery service company said Monday. According to Malltail Korea Center, which offers parcel forwarding services for Korean consumers who purchase goods directly from overseas sellers, the number of orders made in 2020 through their platform jumped by about 71 percent from the previous year. Malltail said purchase data also showe

ConsumerJan. 25, 2021

Korean content popularity boosts related stocks

South Korean media content-related stocks have soared at a fast clip, backed by rising demand for streaming services and growing expectations for the local entertainment industry to strengthen its global foothold, data showed Monday. Studio Dragon, a major local TV drama production firm, saw its shares climb 17.17 percent this year, from 92,600 won ($83.85) marked at the closing of Dec. 30 to 108,500 won touched at Monday’s closing. The stock hit its second-highest closing of 109,200 won

MarketJan. 25, 2021

Retailers get ready for Lunar New Year

Retailers are anticipating a surge in online shopping in the coming weeks ahead of this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, widely known as Seollal in South Korea. Leading Korean e-commerce business Tmon said Monday that the volume of orders generated from its “contactless gift-giving” service saw a 452 percent increase during the past two weeks. Nearly 7 in 10 shoppers purchased items priced below 30,000 won ($27.20), the data also showed, up 7 percent from last year’s figu

ConsumerJan. 25, 2021

FSS set to order local banks compensate Lime fund customers

South Korea’s market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service is slated to order local banks that sold the problematic funds structured by Lime Asset Management to compensate investors who were victims in the massive fraud, officials said Monday. Lime Asset has been under an FSS probe since July 2019 for having concealed huge losses and inflated investment returns to keep its customer base. It suspended fund redemption worth an estimated 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion). The dispute arbit

MarketJan. 25, 2021

SsangYong Motor cuts wages by half amid liquidity crisis

Financially troubled SsangYong Motor Co. said Monday it will cut its employee wages in half in January and February as it struggles with mounting costs amid lackluster sales. In a recent message to employees, SsangYong Motor President and CEO Yea Byung-tae said the decision was part of "desperate measures" amid a sharp decline in sales. In 2020, its vehicle sales fell 19 percent to 107,324 units from 132,799 the previous year. SsangYong Motor's lineup consists of the flagship G4 Rex

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

Galaxy S21 sales tipped to hover around 2.4m units in S. Korea this year: report

Sales of Samsung Electronics Co's new smartphone line, the Galaxy S21, are expected to reach 2.4 million units this year in South Korea, a report showed Monday, as the tech giant tries to expand its presence against Apple Inc.'s iPhone 12. Galaxy S21 sales are estimated to be 40 percent larger than those of the Galaxy S20, which sold about 1.7 million units last year, according to market tracker Counterpoint Research. The Galaxy S20 series had a relatively mediocre performance in its debut yea

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

No. of fake banknotes dips to record low in 2020 amid pandemic

The number of counterfeit South Korean banknotes fell to a record low in 2020, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic caused a decline in cash usage. Last year, the number of fake banknotes found in South Korea came to 272, down 6.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the lowest since the BOK began releasing such data in 1998. The decline was mainly due to a "drop in in-person cash usage as COVID-19 spreads," the BOK said. By denomination, 5,000-won cou

EconomyJan. 25, 2021

KT hires new advisors for AI, robotics push

KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Monday global robotics expert Dennis Hong will join the company in an advisory role to help boost its efforts to integrate new technology into their services. Hong, a professor and the founding director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA, will advise the company on its broader robotics business, according to KT. The move comes as the telecom operator has recently shifted focus to AI and robotics, and last year acquired a 10

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

Samsung heir Lee, prosecutors won't appeal ruling in bribery case

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong and the prosecution said Monday that they will not appeal last week's appeals court ruling that sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison in a retrial of a high-profile bribery case. Last Monday, the Seoul High Court handed down the verdict to the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. for bribing former President Park Geun-hye and her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, to win government support for a smooth father-to-son transfer of managerial power at Samsung. Lee was se

IndustryJan. 25, 2021

[Graphic News] Overseas construction deals reach $35b in 2020

　South Korea's overseas construction orders rose to the highest level in five years in 2020 on major projects won in the Middle East and South America. 　The value of overseas construction deals stood at $35.1 billion last year, up 57.3 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. 　A total of 359 Korean companies won 567 orders from 98 nations last year, it said. 　Local builders’ overseas deals rose for three years from $28.2

BusinessJan. 25, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on vaccine, earnings hope

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday on strong individual buying ahead of the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season this week and hopes for vaccines against the new coronavirus. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 15.05 points, or 0.48 percent, to 3,155.68 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Airline, chemical and bio large caps did well, while auto and insurance shares traded bearish. Top cap Samsung Electronics rose 0.23 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix a

MarketJan. 25, 2021

Exports of red pepper paste surge 35.2% in 2020 on Korean Wave

South Korean exports of red pepper paste jumped more than 35 percent in 2020 from a year earlier thanks to the global popularity of Korean pop culture, known as the Korean Wave, data showed Monday. Overseas shipments of red pepper paste, called "gochujang" in Korean, came to $50.93 million last year, up 35.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. South Korean exports had been on the rise since 2016, when the figure stood

EconomyJan. 25, 2021

S. Korean retail investors' Tesla holdings top $10b

South Korean retail investors' holdings of shares in electric vehicle leader Tesla Motors Inc. soared nearly 32 percent this year to cross the $10 billion mark, data showed Monday. Local individual investors owned $10.33 billion worth of Tesla shares as of Friday, up 31.9 percent from the end of last year, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository. The figure also represents a 73 times increase from the end of 2019 and South Korean retail investors' most-bought issue among for

MarketJan. 25, 2021

Hyundai Capital launches AI-powered platform to suggest quality second-hand cars

Contactless services have also gone mainstream in the second-hand car market with used car dealers increasingly adopting mobile technology to offer credible information on used cars. Joining in on the trend, auto financing firm Hyundai Capital launched an artificial intelligence-powered mobile platform in September last year, which helps consumers avoid low-quality used cars -- often called lemons and picked peaches -- in their recommendations. The used car mobile platform, named Check, has

MarketJan. 24, 2021