Hanwha Life Insurance Q2 net income up 92.8% to W318.6b

Hanwha Life Insurance Co. on Friday reported its second-quarter net profit of 318.6 billion won ($245.5 million), up 92.8 percent from a year earlier. Operating income for the April-June period was 458 billion won, up 90.2 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Revenue rose 38.5 percent to 8.17 trillion won. (Yonhap)

IndustryJuly 29, 2022

SK Innovation Q2 net profit up 589.8% to W1.33tr

SK Innovation Co. said Friday its second-quarter profit more than quadrupled from a year earlier, boosted by robust sales of petroleum products amid higher oil prices. Operating profit reached 2.32 trillion won ($1.78 billion) in the April-June period, up 318.9 percent from 556 billion won the previous year, the South Korean refiner said in a regulatory filing. Sales increased 76.9 percent to 19.9 trillion won. Its net profit grew by nearly sevenfold to 1.33 trillion won from a year earlier. For

IndustryJuly 29, 2022

Seoul shares open higher on expectations over Fed's less aggressive rate hikes

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, as investors speculated that a second consecutive quarterly contraction in the US economy may prod the US Federal Reserve to take rate hikes that are less aggressive than previously expected. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 17.81 points, or 0.73 percent, to trade at 2,453.08 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came off to a solid start after a 1.03 percent gain on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a 1.08 percent adv

MarketJuly 29, 2022

S. Korea's consumption falls for 4th month amid high inflation

South Korea's industrial output rose in June from the previous month, but retail sales declined for the fourth straight month as high inflation and rising interest rates weighed on consumption, data showed Friday. Industrial output grew for the second straight month in June as it rose 0.6 percent on-month, following a 0.8 percent increase in May, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The June increase was led by robust production in the manufacturing sector, the backbone of the economy. M

EconomyJuly 29, 2022

Widodo asks Hyundai Motor to join capital relocation project

  Indonesian President Joko Widodo requested the head of South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group to provide clean mobility in the Southeast Asian country’s grand administrative city project during their meeting in Seoul, the company said Thursday. Earlier this year, the Indonesian parliament passed a bill to relocate the country‘s capital city from Jakarta to the East Kalimantan province in the island of Borneo to level out overpopulation. The new capital will be constructed

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

LG Chem, GS Caltex join hands to build white bio ecosystem

LG Chem and GS Caltex on Thursday held a ground-breaking ceremony at GS Caltex Yeosu plant for its new bio-material demonstration plant, which would contribute to building a white ecosystem, officials said. The demo plant at GS Caltex‘s Yeosu complex will mainly produce 3-Hydroxypropionic acid prototypes, key raw material in the production of biodegradable plastics. The construction is set to be finished by 2023, after which both companies will produce various 3HP prototypes to accelera

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

[Newsmaker] Starbucks Korea admits giveaway bags had cancer-causing chemicals

Starbucks Korea on Thursday admitted that its summer giveaway bags had cancer-causing chemicals, and vowed to provide compensation to its customers with gift coupons. “We deeply apologize to our customers who are disappointed in us for the recent issue (surrounding the giveaway bags),” Starbucks Korea said in a statement. “On July 22, we have requested state-approved institutions to run tests on six unopened samples and five opened samples of our giveaway bags and detected

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

SK On to attract $2b loan to back 3rd battery plant in Europe

South Korean lithium-ion battery cell maker SK On announced Thursday that it plans to attract a combined $2 billion loan to ramp up its push for a new battery plant in Europe. The green financing will come from seven commercial banks with three export credit agencies -- Korea Trade Insurance Corp., Export-Import Bank of Korea and Allianz Trade (formerly known as Euler Hermes) -- supporting loans, loan guarantees and insurance. The borrowing will go to SK On‘s third European battery plant

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

Posco Chemical signs W13tr cathode deal with GM

Posco Chemical, a chemical materials unit of South Korean steel giant Posco, signed a deal to supply General Motors with 13 trillion won’s ($10 billion) worth of cathode materials on Thursday. Cathode materials determine the capacity and average voltage of batteries. With the deal, Posco will now supply high-nickel cathode materials, largely used as electric car batteries, to LG-GM joint venture Ultium Cells for three years. Posco chemical also plans to build production lines in North

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

Seoul shares up for 4th day to over 1-month high on eased uncertainty over Fed's rate hikes

South Korean stocks advanced for a fourth consecutive session Thursday as the chief of the US Federal Reserve has hinted at slowing the pace of its interest rate hikes down the road. The Korean won sharply rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 19.74 points, or 0.82 percent, to close at 2,435.27 points, the highest figure since June 17. Trading volume was a bit heavy at 477.4 million shares worth some 9.01 trillion won ($6.93 billion), with gain

MarketJuly 28, 2022

Fiscal chief downplays capital outflow concern despite Fed’s rate hikes

SEJONG -- The nation’s top economic policymaker on Thursday downplayed the possibility of an active capital flight among foreign investors, saying that the US Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike, which now stands higher than South Korea’s, was carried out within the market expectation. “The US Fed’s decision generally accords with market expectations,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, adding the international financial markets abs

MarketJuly 28, 2022

LG, SoundHound team up for in-car voice assistant system

LG Electronics said Thursday it has teamed up with US audio experts SoundHound to develop an artificial intelligence-based voice system for vehicles with demand growing for both driving convenience and safety. Best known for its music recognition service, Santa Clara, California-based SoundHound supplies voice assistant systems to a slew of automotive, mobile devices, smart home and robotics companies. As part of a memorandum, SoundHound’s voice recognition technology will be applied t

TechnologyJuly 28, 2022

Shinsegae Food launches plant-based canned ham

Shinsegae Food said Thursday that it plans to enter the global alternative meat market with its newly launched plant-based canned ham. “Hormel Foods’ Spam has dominated the global canned ham market since 1926. But in almost 100 years, we have become the first to make a vegan canned ham that has almost the same taste and texture,” said Song Hyun-suk, Shinsegae Food CEO, during a press conference. Song added that compared to other competitors who promote Korean foods unfamilia

ConsumerJuly 28, 2022

Sidewalk robots, new visa among 51 regulatory reforms

The government on Thursday unveiled a total of 51 regulatory reform projects across industries as part of effort to spur both innovation and investment. Easing excessive regulations is one of the campaign pledges of President Yoon Suk-yeol. Thursday’s announcement is the first batch of the plans following the launch of a new task force, led by Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, last month. Six areas, including new industries, environment, bio and health care, are subject to the deregulati

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

Drug Ministry looks to become 1st WHO-listed authority

South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety aims to become the first regulatory body recognized by the World Health Organization to hold globally recognized authority for granting domestic permits of new drugs by December, officials said Thursday. Introduced earlier this year, the WHO-Listed Authority, or WLA, is the global organization’s initiative to certify a regulatory body as a globally recognized authority to replace the procurement-oriented concept of stringent regulatory

TechnologyJuly 28, 2022

Eximbank runs economic emergency taskforce

The Export-Import Bank of Korea said Thursday its executives, including its new CEO and heads of relevant departments, discussed credit support plans to help businesses tide over inflation, high interest rates and the weakening Korean won. Based on judgment that the unstable global supply of raw materials led to high prices, the “economic emergency task force” of Eximbank decided to increase the credit support for tackling the global supply chain crisis from the current 15 trillion

MarketJuly 28, 2022

S. Korean customs control goes online

South Korea’s customs office said Thursday it will launch an online customs declaration platform and an automated customs examination service at Korea‘s major international airports, beginning in August. Travelers entering Korea through Gimpo Airport and Incheon Airport Terminal 2 can now declare designated items through an online app. So far, travelers have been required to fill out a paper form on the plane before landing. The app allows travelers to input personal data by scann

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

Launch of Korea's 1st lunar mission 'Danuri' delayed

The highly anticipated launch of Danuri, South Korea’s first lunar mission, has been postponed at least two days, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday. Danuri’s launch, which was planned to take place on Aug. 2 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon rocket, has been delayed after SpaceX found that it needed to carry out additional checkups on the space vehicle before the launch. The ministry said SpaceX is currently in the process of obt

TechnologyJuly 28, 2022

Retail sales up 9.3% in H1 amid eased virus curbs

Retail sales in South Korea rose 9.3 percent on-year in the first half of this year amid eased COVID-19 curbs and the growth in people's outdoor activities, the industry ministry said Thursday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers reached 82 trillion won ($65.2 billion) in the January-June period, up from 75 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Sales from offline stores rose 8.4 percent in the Janua

ConsumerJuly 28, 2022

S-Oil Q2 net more than doubles amid rising oil prices

S-Oil Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter net profit more than doubled from a year earlier on the back of widened refining margins helped by higher oil prices. Net profit came to 1.01 trillion won ($775.2 million) in the April-June period, up 146.9 percent from 410.7 billion won a year earlier, the Seoul-based subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Aramco said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit reached 1.72 trillion won, more than tripling from the previous year's 571 billion won. Sales

IndustryJuly 28, 2022