Kia records highest yearly figures on sales growth

Kia, South Korea’s second-largest automaker, has raised its earnings target for this year after the company recorded its best-ever figures last year on strong sales. The company said Friday in a conference call that its annual revenue and operating profit had reached 86.6 trillion won ($70.3 billion) and 7.2 trillion won last year, respectively. The numbers increased by 23.9 percent and 42.8 percent each. The automaker sold 2.9 million cars worldwide in 2022, up 4.5 percent from the previo

Jan. 27, 2023

LG Electronics Q4 operating profit tumbles 91%

LG Electronics said Friday its operating earnings for the fourth quarter dipped more than 90 percent from a year earlier on slumping demand for home appliances coupled with global economic difficulties. The consumer electronics giant reported an operating profit of 69.3 billion won ($56.1 million) for the October-December period, down 90.7 percent from the same period a year prior, the regulatory filing showed. It was the first time South Korea’s No. 2 home appliances maker had reported a

Jan. 27, 2023

KT&G refuses ginseng unit spin-off, aims to double sales by 2027

KT&G, South Korea's dominant tobacco and ginseng company, rolled out an aggressive mid-term business plan Friday to bolster its investment and sales in an apparent move to fend off a campaign launched by a Singapore-based activist fund. Under the plan, the company will invest a total of 3.9 trillion won ($3.1 billion) until 2027 with it businesses focused three areas -- next generation tobacco and nicotine products, often referred to e-cigarettes, and health supplement products includin

Jan. 27, 2023

LG Energy Solution logs record earnings on increased shipments

LG Energy Solution reported a twofold jump in operating profit last year, driven by increased demand for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems, the South Korean battery maker said Friday. Revenue rose 43.4 percent to 25.6 trillion won ($20.8 billion) in 2022, and its operating profit hit 1.2 trillion won, a 57.9 percent increase on-year. Sales and operating profit both hit new heights last year. “We were able to record the highest annual revenue as the shipments of our pr

Jan. 27, 2023

Seoul stocks up for 5th day on tech rally

Seoul stocks extended their winning streak to a fifth day Friday, as foreign and institutional investors scooped up major tech shares. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 15.37 points, or 0.62 percent, to 2,484.02. Trading volume was moderate at 495.4 million shares worth 8.89 trillion won ($7.21 billion), with gainers outpacing losers 571 to 209. The Kospi opened higher following a tech rally on Wall Street. Foreign and institutional

Jan. 27, 2023

Samyang Foods opens premium ramen popup in Seoul

Samyang Foods on Thursday opened a popup store to promote its new premium dried noodle brand in Seoul. The noodle boutique, called Salon de Cootique, is set up at the space LES601 Seongsu in Seongsu-dong, and runs until Feb. 5, it said in a statement. In December last year, the firm launched a new premium dried noodle brand, Cootique -- a portmanteau of “cook” and “boutique.” The brand is dedicated to curating products inspired by global noodle dishes. At the popup store,

Jan. 27, 2023

Seoul stocks open higher on US advances

Seoul stocks opened slightly higher Friday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 0.75 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,469.4 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The local stock market followed overnight advances on Wall Street, where stocks rose to the highest level in nearly eight weeks, as investors bet the US economy is performing better than expected. The S&P 500 added 1.1 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.61 percent,

Jan. 27, 2023

[Graphic News] Air traffic rises 16% last year but still below pre-pandemic levels

South Korea’s air traffic rose 16 percent in 2022 from a year earlier on unleashed pent-up demand for travel amid eased COVID-19 virus curbs, the Transport Ministry said. Airlines, domestic and foreign, made a total of 539,788 flights over South Korea last year, up from 465,469 flights a year ago, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. The ministry said the 2022 number of flights still stood at 65 percent of the pre-pandemic levels. Air traffic in the count

Jan. 27, 2023

Hyundai Motor posts best-ever earnings on improved profitability

Hyundai Motor posted a record-high operating profit of 9.8 trillion won ($8 billion) last year as it sold almost 4 million vehicles across the world, the South Korean automaker said Thursday. Despite the global economic downturn, Hyundai Motor’s yearly sales also recorded 142.5 trillion won, up 21.2 percent on year to set a new high. With operating profit having shot up 47 percent on-year to an all-time high for the whole of 2022, the automaker said it was thanks to the strong dollar and i

Jan. 26, 2023

[Newsmaker] [KH Explains] Are ex-bureaucrat execs a boon or bane for banks?

  The bid by a former head of the country’s top financial regulator for the chairmanship of Woori Financial Group has stoked controversy and rekindled concerns of bureaucratic involvement in the highly regulated banking industry. Lim Jong-ryong was chairman of the Financial Services Commission from 2015 to 2017 under the Park Geun-hye administration. He also served as chairman of NongHyup Financial Group from back in 2013 to 2015. On Wednesday, Woori Financial Group’s union held

Jan. 26, 2023

Posco sets up task force to ride through uncertainties

South Korean steel giant Posco has set up a task force to overcome economic difficulties. Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong will spearhead the task force, according to industry sources, Thursday. The task force is expected to focus on reducing costs spent on procuring raw materials, increasing profitability and maximizing business liquidity on the backdrop of difficulties in the global economy. In an email sent to Posco employees, Kim said, “let’s find out measures to save at least 1,000 wo

Jan. 26, 2023

[Contribution] Playing it SAFE, but not too safe

By Steve Brice As we start 2023, investors’ scars from last year’s sell-off across publicly traded markets are still very raw. Against this backdrop, the theme of our 2023 Outlook, Playing it SAFE, should resonate with investors. We believe sequencing your investments is going to be important in the coming year: Bonds are a good place to start, given some of the highest yields offered in a decade and our expectation that a recession is likely in the US and Europe in the first half of

Jan. 26, 2023

Seoul stocks up for fourth day on foreign buying

Seoul stocks surged over 1 percent Thursday, as foreign investors scooped up market heavyweights in the run-up to the corporate earnings season. The Korean won advanced against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 40.08 points, or 1.65 percent, to 2,468.65. Trading volume was moderate at 476.2 million shares worth 8.1 trillion won ($6.58 billion), with gainers outpacing decliners 620 to 249. Foreigners and institutional investors were net buyers at a combined 1.

Jan. 26, 2023

Hanwha, Microsoft partner on solar energy

Hanwha Solutions on Thursday announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft for solar energy projects, marking the first collaboration between a global solar supplier and an information and communication technology behemoth to reduce carbon emissions and boost the clean energy economy. Under the partnership, Hanwha Solutions, a chemical and energy company under South Korea’s seventh largest conglomerate Hanwha Group, said the two sides will push for various solar energ

Jan. 26, 2023

Samsung SDS posts record revenue on upbeat cloud sales

South Korean IT solutions provider Samsung SDS logged a record sales of 17.2 trillion won ($14 billion) in 2022 that was driven by an expansion in its cloud business, the firm said Thursday. In a regulatory filing, the company said its annual sales in 2022 saw a growth of 26 percent when compared to the previous year. It also posted an operating profit of 916.1 billion won. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company garnered 4.25 trillion won in sales and an operating profit of 187.5 billion won

Jan. 26, 2023

SMEs Ministry readies plans to bolster support for exports

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Thursday it is ramping up efforts to facilitate the global expansion of small- and mid-sized firms by bolstering distribution and logistics support in overseas markets. The new plans were briefed during an emergency meeting of economy-related ministers earlier in the day. The ministry’s ultimate goal is raising the export contribution of SMEs from last year’s 39 percent to 50 percent of the nation’s total trade volume by 2027, with the amo

Jan. 26, 2023

Celltrion's anticancer biosimilar debuts in Japan

Celltrion Healthcare, the marketing unit of South Korean drug developer Celltrion, announced Thursday that it has expanded its product portfolio with the recent launch of its cancer-fighting biosimilar Vegzelma in Japan. Vegzelma is a biosimilar referencing Bevacizumab, which is sold under the brand name Avastin. In September of last year, the drug received sales approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, non-small cell lun

Jan. 26, 2023

Samsung’s crisis management system wins ISO certification

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it has won the ISO 22301 certification, a global recognition for crisis preparedness at its chip-manufacturing complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. The ISO certification, awarded by the British Standards Institution, is the international standard for business continuity management system or BCMS, representing the highest level of commitment to business continuity and disaster preparedness. With the latest recognition, the world’s largest memory chi

Jan. 26, 2023

KT, Mongolia team up on rare earths supply

South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corp. said Thursday it has signed a partnership deal with the Mongolian government to secure a stable supply of some 80 kinds of mineral resources, including rare earth elements. KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo signed the memorandum of understanding on mineral resources with Ganbaatar Jambal, Mongolia's Mining and Heavy Industry Minister, in Ulaanbaatar on the sidelines of a meeting that aimed to strengthen strategic cooperation in realizing digital transformatio

Jan. 26, 2023

[Photo News] Energy-saving air conditioners

Samsung Electronics on Thursday rolled out this year’s new air conditioner lineup, including more energy-efficient models in light of rising energy bills. Starting this year, the company’s patented “windless” cooling, a high-end feature that gently and quietly disperses air through micro air holes, will be adopted in all air conditioner models.

Jan. 26, 2023