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

Samsung’s profit surges 12% in Q2 on server demand, premium phone sales

Samsung Electronics logged an operating profit of 14.1 trillion won ($10.77 billion) during the second quarter, up 12.2 percent from the previous year despite rising material prices and recession fears that are weakening consumer demands, the company said Thursday. The South Korean tech giant’s quarterly revenue from April to June came to 77.2 trillion won, up 21.3 percent from a year prior, slightly beating the market consensus of 77 trillion won. The quarterly sales figure was the seco

TechnologyJuly 28, 2022

Seoul shares open higher on eased uncertainty over Fed's rate hikes

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by a widely expected 0.75 percentage point. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 16.88 points, or 0.7 percent, to trade at 2,432.1 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Wrapping up a two-day meeting, the US central bank on Wednesday (US time) announced a three-quarters of a point rate increase to put its policy rate in a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent, the highest level since 201

MarketJuly 28, 2022

Corporate direct financing dips 6.7% in H1 on reduced debt sales

Corporate direct financing in South Korea decreased 6.7 percent on-year in the first half as bond sales plunged amid a sharp increase in market rates, data showed Thursday. Local companies raised a total of 114.5 trillion won ($87.1 billion) by selling stocks and bonds in the January-June period, down 8.24 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets witho

MarketJuly 28, 2022

Biz sentiment for July hits 17-month low on inflation, recession woes

South Korea's business sentiment dipped to the lowest in 17 months in July, with companies bracing for rising inflation amid recession woes, a central bank poll showed Thursday. The business sentiment index (BSI) came to 80 for July, down two points from the previous month, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The tally is the lowest reading since 76 in February, 2021. The index measures corporate prospects for business conditions in the following month. A reading below 100 m

IndustryJuly 28, 2022

New Pyeongtaek base to provide hydrogen for 430,000 vehicles

SEJONG -- A second hydrogen production base in Korea is set to kick off operations in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, next month, to improve the supply volume of energy to vehicle charging stations in Seoul and neighboring cities. The Pyeongtaek base, located at the Asan Industrial Complex, some 60 kilometers south of Seoul, will have the capacity of providing 430,000 hydrogen-fueled vehicles, including commercial ones, with energy per annum, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Ene

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

Inflation outlook hits all-time high as growth prospects dim

South Koreans expect prices to rise at a record level in the next 12 months and the economy to underperform, a Bank of Korea survey showed Wednesday, as the export-led economy faces shrinking growth over poor exports. In a monthly survey of 2,500 households conducted July 11-18, consumers forecast inflation to average 4.7 percent, hitting its highest level since 2008 when the central bank began releasing the data. The all-time high, up from the previous 3.9 percent in June, also marked the lar

EconomyJuly 27, 2022

Samsung to help local logic chip designers save prototype costs

Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor chip foundry business looks to help select smaller chip design houses to create prototypes and validate the pre-production concepts of their own chips. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Samsung will offer multi-project wafer shuttle services to five fabless companies -- DeepX, GLS, SKAi Chips, Semibrain and Raontech -- with the government partially subsidizing the program. The five startups were chosen after a monthlong selection process.

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

Seoul shares up for 3rd day ahead of Fed's rate decision

South Korean stocks advanced for a third straight session on Wednesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve's rate-decision meeting slated for later this week. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) edged up 2.57 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 2,415.53 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 324 million shares worth some 6.9 trillion won (US$5.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 492 to 336. Institutions sold a net 55

MarketJuly 27, 2022

Retailers end early-morning deliveries, citing high costs

Despite the pandemic-triggered e-commerce boom, some South Korean retailers have begun shutting down early-morning deliveries, saying that the cutthroat competition for early bird customers has led to increased operating costs. GS Fresh Mall, an online shopping mall under GS Retail Group, said Wednesday it plans to suspend its early-morning delivery service starting July 31. The company said it has decided to stop the service because of the large cost of additional payrolls for couriers, and

ConsumerJuly 27, 2022

Hyundai Motor to join moon surface exploration

Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia signed a joint research agreement Wednesday with six government-funded research institutes that encompass aeronautics and space capabilities to develop mobility for moon surface exploration, the companies said Wednesday. Through this joint research, they will not only develop technologies needed to make mobility for moon surface exploration but also come up with specific strategies and methods to operate such mobility on the harsh environmental and geogr

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

SK hynix logs record quarterly sales, but to review investment plan

SK hynix on Wednesday reported a record high quarterly sales of 13.81 trillion won ($10.6 billion) from the April to June period, but said it would review next year’s investment plans, citing the global economic uncertainties and weakening market demand. The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker also saw its operating profit increased by 47 percent from the previous quarter to 4.19 trillion won. “Although the prices of DRAM products decreased in the second quarter, the pric

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

New South Wales PM meets businessmen in Seoul at AustCham event

The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea said Wednesday that it hosted a business breakfast for Dominic Perrotte, premier of New South Wales in Seoul, on Monday. During the event, which was attended by more than 100 senior business representatives, the premier highlighted the importance of South Korea to NSW and provided an economic update of the Australian state to the participating corporate stakeholders. The Premier also highlighted the resilience of NSW‘s economy and delivered a

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

Coins ‘luna, terraUSD had obvious design flaws’: crypto pioneer

When algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD and its sister luna was introduced in 2018, it was widely touted as “revolutionary.” Now, the algorithmic disaster that has sent shockwaves across the cryptocurrency market was one that was “waiting to happen,” according ethereum founding member and crypto entrepreneur Joel Dietz. “It’s a project that had obvious design flaws,” Dietz told The Korea Herald in an interview conducted by video. “When I saw them

MarketJuly 27, 2022

LG Energy Solution raises growth target on upbeat demand

LG Energy Solution on Wednesday announced an upgraded growth plan consisting of a threefold growth in sales and a two-digit operating profit ratio in the next five years. This year’s sales target has also been elevated to 22 trillion won ($17 billion) from 19.2 trillion won. The ambitious plan comes as the world’s second-largest battery maker for electric vehicles reported its second-quarter earnings earlier in the day. In the April-June period, the company posted 5.1 trillion wo

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

LG Chem to supply cathode active materials to GM for 8 years

South Korean battery material firm LG Chem announced Wednesday plans to supply at least 950,000 tons of cathode active materials used for electric vehicles to General Motors over the next eight years, which would be enough for some 5 million units. Under the long-term supply agreement, LG Chem will supply cathode materials of nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum -- which represent about 40 percent of the cost of a battery cell -- starting the second half of 2022 through 2030. According to

IndustryJuly 27, 2022

[Newsmaker] SK chief unveils $22b investment plan in meeting with Biden

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Tuesday (US time) announced South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate’s new $22 billion investment plan in the US in his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Biden in return touted SK’s new multi-billion dollar commitment as one of the “most significant investments” ever seen in the US. “We are announcing another $22 billion in new investment in the US,” Chey told the US president. “All this m

TechnologyJuly 27, 2022

LS Cable eyes global undersea cable market

LS Cable & System is expanding investment and tapping into new markets for undersea cables amid a rapidly growing demand for offshore wind power generation, which requires high-quality subsea cables, as countries began executing policies for carbon neutrality. Early this year, LS Cable inked a deal worth 350 billion won ($266 million) to supply undersea cables for wind power in North America. Demand for subsea cables is expected to grow further as US President Joe Biden announced earlier

MobilityJuly 27, 2022

Number of trading firms hits record high in 2021

The number of trading firms in South Korea touched a fresh all-time high in 2021 on brisk exports and imports, government data showed Wednesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 253,058 trading companies last year, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The value of their trade also spiked 28.1 percent on-year to a new record of $1.23 trillion. The number of exporting companies shrank 2.5 percent on-year to 95,640, but the value of their e

EconomyJuly 27, 2022