Seoul stocks open higher despite Wall Street losses

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday despite overnight losses on Wall Street as foreigners and individuals picked up large-cap shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 25.21 points, or 0.94 percent, to reach 2,718.42 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Monday (local time), US stocks fell in volatile trading amid the possibility of monetary policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11 percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.0

April 19, 2022

Air Busan to open 5 new intl. routes next month

Air Busan Co., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Tuesday it will open five new international routes next month as the easing of travel restrictions unleashes pent-up demand. On Jan. 23, Air Busan began to offer one flight per week on the Saipan route following a travel bubble agreement with Saipan, a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. Air Busan added one more flight on the Busan-Saipan route from Mar

April 19, 2022

Yoon vows economic plan to protect national interest

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that he would work to bring a stronger economy to protect South Korea’s national security interests once he takes office on May 10, at a roundtable with academics, industry leaders and former high-level government officials. “We will lay the groundwork for ‘economic security,’” Yoon said, referring to a strategy to deal with fallout from the unprecedented economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 and the Ukraine war, at a

April 18, 2022

Hyundai Motor becomes first carmaker to issue community-based NFTs

Hyundai Motor is issuing community-based non-fungible tokens as part of efforts to enhance its brand experience and customer community, becoming the first carmaker to enter the community NFT marketplace, the South Korean auto giant said Monday. Hyundai released a short film introducing the “Metamobility Universe,” the carmaker’s NFT universe concept that was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The film, featuring Meta Kongz, a popular NFT gorilla cha

April 18, 2022

Transition team fine-tuning Yoon’s housing policy

SEJONG -- The first phase of real estate policy of the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration will be unveiled in an appropriate timing, said Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of the presidential transition team, on Monday. But the transition team said that the unveiling timing will be later than this week, suggesting that internal discussions were still underway. It also denied the rumors that the comprehensive housing policy will be publicized before lawmakers at the National Assembly. Spokespeopl

April 18, 2022

[Newsmaker] Retailers hope for sales recovery as social distancing rules removed

With the government lifting nearly all social distancing measures, retailers in South Korea are now pinning high hopes on a business recovery after enduring two years of strict pandemic restrictions that limited operating hours, private gatherings and even food tasting at the grocery store. Supermarkets, which have been hit hard due to pandemic restrictions, are in talks with the government to return to offering in-store samples, which has been banned since last July. An Emart official and a

April 18, 2022

Korean researchers develop robotic catheter

South Korean researchers have developed the country’s first robotic catheter system that can be inserted into human organs to perform interventional therapies, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said Monday. A catheter is a thin tube-like medical device that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform surgical procedures. Interventional therapies, which refer to treating surgery-requiring-diseases through non-surgical procedures, have been implemented in a wide r

April 18, 2022

‘Seoul has full potential to become Asia’s next financial center’: deputy mayor

It was 2003, with South Korea still clinging to the euphoria of the 2002 World Cup, when the official road map to making Seoul Asia’s financial center was first announced. Hope was in the air and it quickly became a key task for current Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who previously served as the city’s mayor from 2006 to 2011. But the hurdles were too high. Global financial institutions were put off by Korea’s rigid labor market and tight, yet somewhat vague regulations, despite the geopo

April 18, 2022

ArkData completes disaster recovery system for Kyungpook Univ.

Local data replication solution provider ArkData said Monday that it has successfully completed the development of a disaster recovery system for Kyungpook National University in the southeastern city of Daegu. The project aims to protect the school’s student database and prevent business disruptions caused by data center failures or natural disasters. ArkData, specialized in data replication and integration, provides business continuity planning and disaster recovery solutions. The c

April 18, 2022

SK Telecom’s digital remastering technology Supernova going global

SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence-powered digital remastering technology Supernova is going global in a new partnership with France’s Verimatrix, a leading provider of content security solutions, the Korean telecom giant said Monday. Supernova aims to recreate digital content by using AI-powered colorization tool, called DeOldify. The technology has already been widely used in remastering classic content or restoring historic records here. Its smartphone app made its global debu

April 18, 2022

Regulator to delay review of punitive actions against shippers for price fixing

South Korea's antitrust regulator plans to put off its review of punitive measures over shippers' alleged collusions to fix freight rates as some foreign players have faced difficulty in doing business amid COVID-19 lockdowns in China, industry officials said Monday. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating allegations that around 20 domestic and foreign shippers colluded to fix higher freight rates for the Korea-China and Korea-Japan sea routes since early 2000. The FTC was suppos

April 18, 2022

Seoul stocks open lower on concerns over Fed's aggressive tightening

South Korean shares opened lower Monday amid concerns that the Fed may raise rates at a faster and stronger-than-expected pace. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) went down 3.87 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,692.19 as of 9:15 a.m. Expectations are high that the Fed may raise interest rates aggressively in the coming months. The US markets were closed on Friday. On the Seoul bourse, shares traded mostly lower. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics inched down 0.15 percent and

April 18, 2022

CJ Logistics to raise W740b fund to bolster fulfilment network

CJ Logistics, South Korea’s largest logistics firm, said Sunday that it is set to raise up to 740 billion won ($602 million) to construct major fulfillment centers in the metropolitan area, accelerating its e-commerce business. The firm will first raise 250 billion won in cash with Samsung SRA Asset Management, the real estate investment arm of Samsung Group, and plans to borrow the remaining 490 billion won from other financial companies. The fund will be operated for eight years until

April 17, 2022

[Market Eye] Is Arm M&A still a pipe dream?

Antitrust hurdles brought down a $40 billion deal in February, which would have otherwise allowed graphic processor giant Nvidia to control United Kingdom-based chip design giant Arm. A few months later, there are signs that a consortium of strategic investors is building, joined by South Korea-based memory chip maker SK hynix. The consortium is looking to salvage what was considered the largest deal in the history of the global chip industry. All eyes are on whether the consortium would be a

April 17, 2022

Foreign direct investment hit by US-China trade war

South Korea received some 33 percent less foreign direct “greenfield” investments as of 2020, compared with the amount before the start of the US-China trade war in March 2018, a report showed Sunday. Greenfield investment refers to a type of foreign direct investment in which a parent company sets up a new affiliate in a different country rather than buying one and builds its own operations from the ground up. “When three-year greenfield FDIs before and after the conflict a

April 17, 2022

Google Korea logs W292b in sales without app store transaction fees

Amid the ongoing controversy over Google’s new in-app payment policy deemed Google Korea posted sales of 292 billion won ($237 million) from last year, up 32.8 percent on-year - but that did not include commission from the Play app store, estimated to be trillions of won. According to the regulatory filing submitted by the Korean arm of the global IT giant on Thursday, Google Korea’s operating profit recorded 29.4 billion won, up 88.4 percent on year, while its net income rose 152.

April 15, 2022

Asia’s first Porsche exhibition garners attention in Seoul

Asia’s first Porsche exhibition, “Porsche Ikonen,” drew thousands of visitors in its first week in Seoul, Porsche Korea said Friday. Since the general opening to the public Saturday, the exhibition saw around 6,500 visitors as of Thursday, with an average of 2,000 visitors last weekend, according to the automaker. Tickets for the coming weekend have already sold out. Showcasing 18 units of legendary cars including the hypercar concept “919 Street,” Porsche’

April 15, 2022

Kia, Coupang to develop electric truck by 2025

South Korean carmaker Kia and last-mile delivery service firm Coupang announced Friday that they had signed an agreement Wednesday to develop all-electric vehicles for cargo delivery. The two companies plan to launch mid-sized and large electric cargo vans by 2025, with better storage, efficiency and safety than Coupang’s current 1-ton cargo truck. Kia said it would use its experience and technology in the automobile sector to offer diverse solutions and services requested by Coupang to

April 15, 2022

Discount vouchers to be offered for hotels, sport games

SEJONG -- Policymakers on Friday have unveiled a monthslong consumption campaign offering discount vouchers for the leisure and sports sectors, as the country eases social distancing and slowly returns to normal. At a meeting to monitor consumer prices and economic policies on Friday, Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said the government will provide households with discount vouchers that can be used when booking lodging facilities and buying tickets to watch professional sports leagues. He s

April 15, 2022

Korean startup exports League of Legends AI analysis program

South Korean startup GameEye has signed contracts with five esports teams for them to use Deeplol Pro, the company’s artificial intelligence-based gaming data analysis program, the firm said Friday. The startup signed the deals on Thursday to five undisclosed League of Legends teams, each in Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Korea and the United States. GameEye said it would target more LoL teams in North America, South America, Europe and Asia with the AI-powered service. Deeplol Pro uses the

April 15, 2022