Hanwha Solutions invests $160m in US low-carbon polysilicon firm

Hanwha Solutions said Thursday that the company has invested $160 million in securing low-carbon photovoltaic materials amid a growing demand for renewable energy in the United States. The energy affiliate of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group said it agreed to purchase a 16.67 percent stake in REC Silicon for $160 million. The investment will make the Hanwha company a co-leading shareholder of the polysilicon manufacturer along with Aker Horizons, a Norway-headquartered investment fir

Nov. 18, 2021

SK Bioscience-AstraZeneca deal to expire by the end of this year

SK Bioscience’s contract manufacturing deal to produce AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine will expire by the end of this year, according to the company Thursday. The deal greatly helped South Korea secure shots in its early vaccination stage, but as the government has decided to phase out the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, there is no need for the firm to continue producing it, the firm said. As for international supplies, however, the firm remains in talks with AstraZeneca, the fir

Nov. 18, 2021

[Newsmaker] Netflix hikes subscription fees by 17 percent in Korea

Streaming giant Netflix announced on Thursday a subscription fee increase of up to 17 percent, its first hike since launching the service in South Korea in 2016. The streaming platform’s standard plan will cost 13,500 won ($11.45) a month, up 12.5 percent from the previous 12,000 won, and the premium plan will go up 17.24 percent to 17,000 won from 14,500 won. The basic plan will remain unchanged at 9,500 won. Local users will be notified of the price changes 30 days before their renewa

Nov. 18, 2021

Apple releases updated iOS to fix call drop issue

Apple released an update to its mobile operating system Thursday to fix dropped calls on iPhone devices, including the iPhone 12 and 13. The release of the iOS 15.1.1, an updated version of the iOS 15.1, fixes the call drop performance issue on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 as well as the usual bug fixes, U.S. online website Apple Insider said. iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users have recently experienced consistent dropped calls on their devices, preventing them from receiving incoming calls. Apple

Nov. 18, 2021

DataStreams wins tech award

DataStreams said Wednesday its CEO won a bronze tower order of industrial service merit from the government for the company’s technological prowess in big data solutions. Founded 20 years ago, DataStreams is a leader of the local big data solution market and is taking steps to get listed in Kosdaq. In addition to the order of merit won by CEO Lee Young-sang, the company’s big data platform named TeraONE won a tech award from the minister of trade, industry and energy. By Kim So-hy

Nov. 17, 2021

LG Innotek wins presidential commendation

LG Innotek said Wednesday one of its senior officials won a presidential commendation at the 2021 Korea Tech Show for developing innovative technology and products. Lee Kwang-tae, head of LG Innotek’s package substrate production division, received the award for contributing toward enhancing the competitiveness of Korea’s semiconductor substrate industry. Lee joined LG Electronics in 1999 and has worked on substrate development and production technology. Since 2008, he has led the

Nov. 17, 2021

Naver taps 40-year-old female exec as new CEO

Naver, the No.1 portal operator and internet firm in South Korea, announced Wednesday it has nominated Choi Soo-yeon as new chief executive officer. Choi, born in 1981, would mark the youngest leader of the company so far. The appointment of Choi is interpreted as the tech firm’s intention to overhaul its corporate culture and accelerate business growth in the global market. A Seoul National University graduate with an engineering degree, Choi joined Naver as an entry-level employee

Nov. 17, 2021

Seoul to pour more money to nurture local materials, parts industries

South Korea will spend 20 billion won ($16.9 million) next year to nurture local industries for materials, parts and equipment for chips, future cars, bio products and nanotechnologies, officials said Wednesday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki, unveiling a road map to identify and strengthen the weakest link in the country’s industrial value chain, said if all goes as planned, the country will see a drastic decline in imports of essential parts and equipment in backbone industries. &ldqu

Nov. 17, 2021

Yuhan to begin phase 1 clinical study for NASH treatment candidate

South Korean pharmaceutical firm Yuhan said Wednesday that the company’s nonalcoholic steatohepatitis treatment candidate YH25724 will go through a phase 1 clinical trial in Europe. The test will involve some 80 healthy overweight adults to test safety, tolerability and pharmacodynamics of the NASH drug candidate. Yuhan expects that the study to be completed by June next year. With the commencement of the trial, the Korean firm will receive a milestone payment of $10 million from Bo

Nov. 17, 2021

Samsung’s pick for 2nd foundry fab in US seems imminent

With Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung Electronics, currently in the US, industry observers expect the company to decide on the final location for its second foundry plant in the US, according to news reports Wednesday. Some US media based in Texas reported Tuesday that the South Korean chipmaker appeared to have narrowed down its list of candidate sites for the new foundry fab believed to be worth $17 billion. It was found that Samsung has withdrawn its application filed in Ja

Nov. 17, 2021

[Herald Interview] CrucialTec taps EV market with eco-friendly painting tech

CrucialTec, once famed for its optical trackpad for BlackBerry, is venturing into the sizzling electric vehicle market, with a no-contact painting technology. Called the “Vacuum Steam Solution (VSS)” transfer technology, the Pangyo-based firm’s new expertise is about painting the surface of electric devices like smartphone cases, home appliances, as well as the interior and exterior materials of automobiles. By applying heat and pressure to ink-coated films in a manner that

Nov. 16, 2021

Doosan Logistics Solutions to provide logistics robots from local firm

System integrator Doosan Logistics Solutions Co. (DLS) said Tuesday it has signed a deal with a local autonomous mobile robot (AMR) manufacturer KN to provide more logistics robots. "As orders for AMRs have increased in recent months, we have diversified the supply chain of AMRs to meet growing demands for them," the company said in an emailed statement. With the latest deal, DLS will be provided with AMRs by two AMR makers -- Chinese AMR maker Geek+ and KN. In November last year

Nov. 16, 2021

Celltrion’s Truxima posts 46 percent market share in major European countries

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion’s Truxima, the first biosimilar of Roche’s blockbuster cancer drug Rituxan (rituximab), has a market share close to 50 percent in major European countries, the company said Monday. According to Celltrion Healthcare, which is in charge of Celltrion’s overseas business, the combined market share of Truxima in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain reached 46 percent as of the second quarter this year. The five countries account for

Nov. 15, 2021

Kim Jong-kook truly ‘unnatural’? What does science say?

Singer and entertainer Kim Jong-kook has enjoyed over two decades of success in TV and music. But the 45-year-old recently made headlines for something other than his voice: his workout routine. Controversy broke out one faithful Halloween to spook fans of the beloved TV personality, when a fitness YouTuber named Greg Doucette called him out for likely not being “natural” when working out to build his body. “Is he natural? Of course not!” Doucette said in his video. He

Nov. 15, 2021

Hyundai Mobis develops driving assistance system for tight spaces

Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor’s future mobility software and component unit, announced Sunday that the company has developed a new driver assistance system, specifically designed to help drivers navigate narrow streets and get in and out of small parking spaces. The company said the Mobis Parking System, the first of its kind in the world, is specialized for countries like South Korea and European countries, which have a lot of urban areas with narrow streets. Hyundai Mobis expects its

Nov. 14, 2021

Lee Jae-yong’s 2014 meeting with Goldman Sachs exec draws attention

A 2014 meeting between Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Gene Sykes of Goldman Sachs is drawing attention, sources said Friday, in connection with Lee’s alleged plans to inherit his father’s leadership role at Samsung. During a court hearing on Thursday, an email written by Sykes, then-head of mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, was disclosed by Samsung’s lawyers as evidence for the defense. They say it counters prosecutors’ claims that Lee discus

Nov. 12, 2021

Korean tech giants sweep CES 2022 Innovation Awards

Korean tech giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics swept the CES 2022 Innovation Awards, ahead of the year’s biggest tech event to be held in Las Vegas in January. Samsung Electronics received 43 CES 2022 Innovation Award honors, including four Best of Innovations accolades. The Consumer Technology Association, which organizes the annual convention, announced Wednesday the products and technologies across 27 sectors that received the CES 2022 Innovation Award. Samsung swept the v

Nov. 11, 2021

Commercial air taxi demonstrates flight in Gimpo

A dream team with the goal of trialing commercial air taxis by 2025 demonstrated Thursday its commercial Urban Air Mobility system, or UAM. The team consists of Korea Airports Corp., Hanwha Systems, Korea Transport Institute, Tmap Mobility and SK Telecom. UAM is a new air transportation system that involves private electric aircraft taking off and landing vertically. It can travel faster than cars as it is free from traffic on land, shortening the time to reach a destination to 20 minutes fr

Nov. 11, 2021

[News Focus] Google’s new billing policy for Korea is under scrutiny again. Why?

When Google announced on Nov. 4 that it was changing its controversial in-app payment policy in South Korea to comply with a revision to the Telecommunications Business Act, dubbed the “anti-Google law,” it appeared that Korea had become the first country in the world to check the US tech behemoth’s growing control of the app ecosystem. But, less than a week after the announcement, Seoul officials are finding themselves caught in yet another tussle between Google and local d

Nov. 11, 2021

Hugel says will fight Drug Ministry on botulinum toxin case

T he Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday it will revoke licenses of six botulinum toxin products manufactured by Hugel and Pharma Research Bio for failing to obtain due authorization. Hugel, South Korea’s leading botulinum toxin products maker, however, said it would fight the ministry’s move, saying their products, produced for overseas sales, were not subject to the regulation. Under the Drug Ministry’s order, the six botulinum toxin products -- two types of P

Nov. 10, 2021