SK kicks off 2021 with $1.5b investment into US hydrogen company Plug Power

South Korea’s No.3 conglomerate SK Group said Thursday it would acquire a 9.9 percent stake worth $1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in the US hydrogen fuel cell maker Plug Power to jointly take the initiative in Asian hydrogen markets. The group’s holding firm SK Holdings and a natural gas subsidiary SK E&S will invest 800 billion won each into Plug Power, which will make SK Group the largest stakeholder in the New York-based hydrogen company. SK Group is expected to finaliz

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

LG Display to recast display in contactless new norm at CES 2021

LG Display will shine a light on the role of displays in the post-COVID-19 contactless society at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show 2021, set to take place from Monday, the company said Thursday. The three key messages the company wants to convey this year are “Natural Reality,” “Lifestyle in Harmony” and “Better for People” -- with an overarching theme that displays brings the real world to those in front of them. LG Display’s display soluti

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

Chey likely to be sole candidate for KCCI chair

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is set to be named as the next chief of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, succeeding incumbent Chairman Park Yong-maan, industry officials said Thursday. The KCCI has so far never been led by a figure at the helm of one of the so-called Big Four chaebol -- Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK or LG. Chey’s selection is seen as a signal that the KCCI is seeking to enhance its role and stature amid the post-coronavirus market turbulence. The KCCI will conve

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

Seoul stocks set another record high, key index tops 3,000 points

South Korean stocks rallied Thursday to close above the 3,000-point mark for the first time, backed by strong foreign and institutional buying triggered by US stimulus hopes. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 63.47 points, or 2.14 percent, to close at 3,031.68 points. Trading volume was very high at about 1.5 billion shares worth around 26.8 trillion won ($24.6 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 617 to 220. Institut

MarketJan. 7, 2021

[Photo News] Make way for snow plows

Plows remove the snow piled up on the runways at Incheon International Airport on Thursday after the nation faced heavy snowfall overnight. (Yonhap) (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

LG acquires controlling stake in US data firm Alphonso for $80m

LG Electronics announced Thursday the South Korean tech giant has acquired a controlling stake of more than 50 percent in US data analytics firm Alphonso, in an $80 million deal for its TV business. Based in Silicon Valley, Alphonso is a data analytics startup that specializes in TV commercials and various media content. With the latest investment, LG plans to accelerate its digital transformation strategy that aims to deliver better customized services for LG TV users. The company plans

TechnologyJan. 7, 2021

Samsung unveils Neo QLED with Quantum Mini LED tech

Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled its 2021 TV lineup, including the Neo QLED featuring its Quantum Mini LED technology during a virtual presentation ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show next week. The Neo QLED, a step up from the current QLED models, uses a new light source called Quantum Mini LED that is much tinier than current LED. The Quantum Mini LED is designed to be one-fortieth the height of a conventional LED. The number of LEDs used in a liquid crystal display TV is a lot

TechnologyJan. 7, 2021

Experts positive on Kospi’s rally despite concerns over bubble

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed above the 3,000 points for the first time Thursday, as well as rising to an all-time high of 3,055.28 during intraday trading. Retail investors’ buying binge led the historic 3,000-point milestone a day earlier although the index ended up closing at 2,968.21 points. While the era of Kospi 3,000 has wide opened, multiple brokerage houses raised stock price outlook for this year, setting the upper-end target band to 2,830-3,500 points. They predic

MarketJan. 7, 2021

Foreign investment banks raise 2021 growth outlook for S.Korea

Top foreign investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and HSBC, have upgraded South Korea’s growth outlook for this year to an average 3.4 percent, up by 0.1 percentage point from their previous estimate, a report released by the Korea Center for International Finance showed Thursday.  By end-December, two of nine investment banks surveyed in the report -- Credit Suisse and HSBC -- had revised their outlook upward by 0.7 percentage point and 0.5 percentage point to 3.6 per

EconomyJan. 7, 2021

Samsung Display unveils new OLED trademark

Samsung Display applied for a trademark for its Samsung OLED brand in 43 nations, in an attempt to stake out its leading position in the organic light-emitting diode market that is entering maturity. “The new brand logo serves to clearly present our brand identity and superior technology as a leading player in the OLED market as it shifts over to maturity,” said Baek Jee-ho, vice president of strategic marketing for small and medium displays at Samsung Display. “From hereon,

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

Finance Ministry vows to beef up monitoring of excess liquidity

Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom vowed on Thursday to strengthen monitoring on swelling of liquidity spilled over to the country’s asset markets amid concerns over the stock market’s sharp pandemic-era rally. Buoyed by fiscal stimulus and relief packages provided during the COVID-19 crisis management procedure, the abundant liquidity has flown into the stock and real estate markets to the point where the government is beginning to worry whether the real economy could catch up.

EconomyJan. 7, 2021

FSS to inspect Samsung Securities for allegedly breaching capital market rules

The market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service will launch a three-week comprehensive inspection of Samsung Securities on Monday, officials said Thursday. The comprehensive inspection on the nation’s leading brokerage will be the first of its kind since April 2018, when the firm was under FSS inspection over a dividend fiasco in which it mistakenly paid stocks to employees as dividends instead of cash dividends. During the planned inspection, the financial authorities will mainly look

MarketJan. 7, 2021

Korean Air unveils redesigned official website and app

Korean Air on Thursday unveiled its redesigned official website and mobile app, enabling customers to access the cheapest tickets for any given date or destination. The “cart saving” feature will allow customers to save details when they decide to leave the website during the process of booking so that they can come back and continue the process later. The revamped mobile app dubbed “Korean Air My” has adopted a simpler design and made main services more accessible, the

MobilityJan. 7, 2021

Korean firms ready to showcase products for 'new normal' pandemic era at all-digital CES 2021

South Korean firms, anchored by Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., will focus on showcasing new innovations that can make people's lives better in the new normal era of the pandemic at the upcoming global tech expo, industry insiders said Thursday, as they prepare for online exhibition to global audiences. This year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will take place from Monday to Thursday and will be held online for the first time due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. More than

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

S. Korea to invest over W250b in AI, software education in 2021

South Korea's ICT ministry said Thursday it will invest 262.6 billion won ($242 million) to foster education in artificial intelligence (AI) and software this year as part of the country's digital New Deal program that seeks to boost jobs in new tech industries. South Korea last year unveiled the digital New Deal, which aims to spend 58.2 trillion won on key tech investments, such as AI, to create around 900,000 jobs by 2025. The Ministry of Science and ICT said it plans to educate around 16,0

EconomyJan. 7, 2021

Households' excess funds rise in Q3 amid pandemic

Excess funds held by South Korean households and nonprofit agencies rose in the third quarter of last year due mainly to an increase in stock investments, the central bank said Thursday. Net financial funds -- the value of financial assets minus financial liabilities -- held by local households and nonprofit organizations serving households amounted to 30.7 trillion won ($28.2 billion) in the July-September period, up from 16.6 trillion won a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the

EconomyJan. 7, 2021

Exports of fishery goods down 7.4% in 2020 on pandemic fallout

South Korea's exports of fishery products moved down 7.4 percent on-year in 2020, data showed Thursday, as people around the globe refrained from dining out amid the new coronavirus pandemic, leading to weaker demand for tuna and other popular goods. Outbound shipments of fishery goods reached $2.3 billion last year, down from $2.5 billion posted in 2019, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The decrease was largely attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, whic

EconomyJan. 7, 2021

Sale of 3 midsized shipbuilders in final stage

The sale of South Korea's three midsized shipbuilders is in the final stage despite concerns that they may have trouble in finding viable investors due to a slump in the shipbuilding industry and the COVID-19 outbreak. The midsized shipbuilders -- Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. and Daesun Shipbuilding Engineering Co. -- were put up for sale last year due to their financial trouble since the 2008 global financial crisis. Creditors of Daesun S

IndustryJan. 7, 2021

Bitcoin tops W40m in S. Korea for 1st time

Bitcoin topped 40 million won ($36,800) per unit for the first time in South Korea on Thursday, a local cryptocurrency exchange said. Bitcoin was trading at 40.9 million won as of 8:58 a.m., up 6.94 percent from the previous day, according to local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. It just took 11 days for the cryptocurrency to top the 40 million-won mark after it broke the 30 million-won threshold on Dec. 27, 2020. The bitcoin price jumped 380 percent compared with a year earlier. The bull ru

MarketJan. 7, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on US gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday, tracking overnight Wall Street gains that were largely generated by the Democrats' control of the US Senate. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 44.46 points, or 1.5 percent, to 3,012.67 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks gained ground amid expectations that the US political paradigm shift would help increase spending to stimulate the world's largest economy and benefit its export-driven trade partners. Market bellwe

MarketJan. 7, 2021