Seoul stocks open tad lower in wake of US bank failure

Seoul stocks opened slightly lower Monday, as investors brace for the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank's collapse amid woes over the Federal Reserve's monetary tightening. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 3.79 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,390.8 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The market got off to a lackluster start after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.07 percent Friday, with the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite declining 1.76 percent. Las

March 13, 2023

Exports down 16% during first 10 days of March

South Korea's exports fell 16.2 percent on-year in the first 10 days of March, data showed Monday, due to sluggish shipments of chips. The country's outbound shipments stood at $15.8 billion in the March 1-10 period, compared with $18.8 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports advanced 2.7 percent on-year to $20.8 billion during the cited period, resulting in a trade deficit of $4.9 billion. In February, the country's outbound shipments

March 13, 2023

Samsung SDS renews vision for cloud leadership

South Korea’s IT services firm Samsung SDS on Friday unveiled a renewed vision for its burgeoning cloud business, touting itself as the nation’s only “hybrid” service provider that offers integrated hardware and software solutions for corporate clients. “Cloud computing itself is inherently complicated enough and it also covers a vast range of options now. We’d like to simplify the service for our clients under our new brand slogan, ‘Cloud. Simply Fi

March 12, 2023

[Beyond Earth] Hanwha looking long-term with space business

Hanwha Group, South Korea's seventh-largest conglomerate by total value of assets, solidified itself as the leading player in the country’s space race in the private sector when its aerospace arm, Hanwha Aerospace, won the bid to lead the project of upgrading the homegrown Nuri rocket over Korea Aerospace Industries in December 2022. On top of advancing the Nuri rocket through four more launches by 2027, Hanwha has made it clear that it aims to become what it calls a “total spac

March 12, 2023

Kakao to take control over SM

The heated competition to take over leading K-pop agency SM Entertainment seems to have come to a sudden, amicable halt, as IT giant Kakao is set to seize control of the label while its rival Hybe, the K-pop powerhouse behind global sensation BTS, has decided to drop its bid with future cooperation in mind. “Hybe assessed that the market is showing signs of overheating, following the rivalry with Kakao and Kakao Entertainment,” Hybe said through an official statement on Sunday. &ldqu

March 12, 2023

Coupang withdraws from Japan to focus on Korea, Taiwan

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is expected to withdraw from the Japanese delivery service market later this month and to focus more on expanding its business in Korea and Taiwan, according to news reports Sunday. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, or more commonly known as the Nikkei, reported Saturday that Coupang Japan has decided to end its pilot food and household goods delivery service it has run over the past two years on March 21. The pilot program, launched in June 2021, aims to

March 12, 2023

[KH Explains] Korean battery makers hint at ‘price war’ against Chinese rivals

After years of a high-pricing, premium strategy, South Korea’s top three battery makers -- LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On -- are increasingly turning their eyes to low-priced batteries in an apparent move to prevent ceding more market share to their fast-growing Chinese rivals in the soaring global electric vehicle market. SK On, a spinoff from SK Innovation, will unveil its first lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, at this week’s InterBattery trade show that kicks off

March 12, 2023

Hyundai E&C begins petrochemical project

Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering have officially embarked on a project to build the largest petrochemical facilities to date in the South Korean city of Ulsan. The plan, dubbed “the Shaheen Project,” is the construction of high value-added petrochemical production facilities in which South Korean oil refiner S-Oil has invested a whopping 9.3 trillion won ($7 billion). It is the largest investment made by Aramco -- a Saudi Arabian state-operated oil and g

March 10, 2023

Korean auto, battery sectors brace for EU-first act

South Korean automotive and battery companies are closely monitoring the soon-to-be-unveiled European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act as the new regulation intends to strengthen the availability of critical raw materials and enhance the regional supply chain. For Korean businesses, the EU’s CRMA -- set to be made public on Tuesday -- is widely seen as the European version of the US’ Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA, which was signed into law by the Biden administration in Au

March 10, 2023

Daewoo E&C secures W1tr deal to build power plants in Libya

Daewoo Engineering & Construction announced Friday that the company has secured a deal to build gas-fired power plants in Libya. The construction deal, which Daewoo E&C signed with General Electricity Company of Libya, is worth $790 million (1 trillion won), the company added. Under the deal, Daewoo E&C will build gas-fired power stations in Libya’s Mellitah and Misurata regions. The construction order was made as the Libyan government needed additional power plants to manage i

March 10, 2023

BlackRock emerges as Samsung Securities’ 3rd-largest shareholder

US-based investment management firm BlackRock has become the third-largest shareholder of South Korean brokerage house Samsung Securities, a filing showed Thursday. BlackRock’s 12 affiliated entities hold a total of 5.46 percent stake (4.87 million shares) in Samsung Securities as of Feb. 28, according to a disclosure filed with the Financial Supervisory Service. A minority shareholder with at least 5 percent of shares in a company is subject to filing obligations as a block holder of th

March 10, 2023

SK Geocentric readies world’s 1st plastic recycling complex

SK Geocentric, a chemicals unit under South Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Friday it has completed technological preparations for the Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster with its US partner, Purecycle Technologies. The Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster is expected to be the world’s first plastic recycling complex, according to SK Geocentric. The companies aim to complete construction of the recycling complex in 2025. Researchers and engineers at the South Korean chemicals firm conducted te

March 10, 2023

Seoul stocks open sharply lower on Wall Street losses

Seoul stocks opened lower Friday, following overnight Wall Street losses amid growing fears over faster rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 25.35 points, or 1.05 percent, to 2,393.74 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, Wall Street closed sharply down after jobless claims showed that the US labor market is still resilient, casting uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's rate hike path. The S&P fell 1.85 percent, the Dow Jones

March 10, 2023

S. Korea posts record current account deficit in Jan. as exports slump amid recession woes

South Korea posted the largest ever current account deficit in January as exports sharply dwindled amid growing worries over a global economic recession, central bank data showed Friday. The country's current account shortfall came to $4.52 billion in January, swinging from a surplus of $2.68 billion a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the largest monthly current account deficit since relevant data started to be compiled in January 1980

March 10, 2023

TGS Group makes foray into art investment market

South Korean retail and finance company TGS Group said Thursday it has opened a boutique-style community center in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul, to introduce young artists and their artworks, and nurture experts in art investment. The new facility comes after TGS launched a new unit, named ArtFin, last month to start an art-related investment business, a burgeoning investment sector. ArtFin comes from the words "art" and "fintech." TGS said it pins high hopes on the recent

March 9, 2023

Seoul stocks down for second day on foreign sell-off, rate hike woes

Seoul stocks closed lower for a second straight session Thursday on heavy sell-offs by foreign investors and renewed fears the Federal Reserve will accelerate its pace of rate increases. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed down 12.82 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,419.09. Trading volume was moderate at 465.3 million shares worth 10.2 trillion ($7.7 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 478 to 396. The market got off to a strong

March 9, 2023

JB rejects activist fund’s request for dividend expansion

South Korea’s JB Financial Group said Thursday that it is against activist fund Align Partners’ demand for dividend expansion. Align Partners, which holds a 14 percent stake in JB, is the financial firm's second-largest shareholder. “In order to boost shareholder benefits in a sustainable way, excessive dividend expansion could hurt corporate value as well as shareholder interests,” JB said in a statement. The latest announcement comes after Align Partners submitte

March 9, 2023

LG sets up automotive R&D unit in Vietnam

LG Electronics said Thursday it has elevated its research and development center in Vietnam into a corporate entity as the tech giant seeks to further bolster its fast-growing automotive solutions business. The new unit, called LG Electronics Development Vietnam, will be in charge of developing and testing software for in-vehicle infotainment systems, one of the key products of LG’s vehicle solutions division. The IVI systems encompass telematics, audio, video and navigation solutions prov

March 9, 2023

[K-Food] Pulmuone targets health-conscious Americans with tofu lineup

This is the second installment of a series of interviews with global business chiefs of South Korean food companies that are expanding aggressively in overseas markets. -- Ed. About 7 out of 10 tofu products sold in the US are made by South Korean food giant Pulmuone. Cho Kil-su, head of Pulmuone USA, said its unrivaled market position is an outcome of years of efforts to creatively localize one of the most highly regarded alternative sources for protein -- Korean tofu -- along with a slew o

March 9, 2023

SK Networks secures stake in US AI startup

SK Networks said Thursday it has committed a total of $22 million in both direct and indirect investments to secure a 2.6 percent stake in the recent Series C funding round held for Humane, an AI startup founded by ex-Apple employees through the company’s investment subsidiary Hico Capital. This bold investment decision, which SK Networks has disclosed to its stakeholders following the end of the Series C funding round, rides along the tides of the growing industry-wide interest in AI tech

March 9, 2023