Lotte to invest W602b for EV battery raw materials

Lotte Chemical will inject more than 602 billion won ($502.3 million) to produce raw materials for electric vehicle batteries and build new facilities for carbon capture and liquefaction on a 67,000-square-meter site inside a petrochemical complex in Daesan, South Chungcheong Province. The chemical unit of Lotte Group will use the fund to manufacture high-purity ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate. The two are raw materials of electrolytes, one of the four key components of EV batteries.

Feb. 7, 2022

Why Korean telcos’ ride into flying car business

Flying cars have clearly been the main focus of automakers seeking to expand their mobility technology into the air. But Korean telecommunication companies, despite their lack of manufacturing experience, are also jumping into the air mobility business as they have critical jobs to do.  SK Telecom said Monday it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with a US company Joby Aviation to materialize their cooperation in the urban air mobility business from building airframes to servic

Feb. 7, 2022

KT to join submarine cable project connecting Asia

South Korean telecommunication firm KT announced Monday plans to take part in a new 9,000-kilometer subsea cable project reaching six countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, as an owner and operator. With the new project, KT aims to meet a growing corporate demand for greater connectivity to achieve digital transformation. KT signed a memorandum of understanding with real estate consulting firm Savills Korea on Monday to launch and operate the submarine cable, connecting six countries --

Feb. 7, 2022

Fashion sales surge last year as Koreans get ready to go out

Having spent mostly on furniture, home appliances and cars in the first year of the pandemic, consumers bought more bags and clothes last year, apparently getting ready to go out, statistics showed. Business has been good for furniture and home appliance companies for the past two years as COVID-19 persisted, keeping people at home. Meanwhile, shoe shops continued to see sluggish sales. The retail sales index rose 5.5 percent last year, compared to 2020, meaning that the amount of goods sold

Feb. 7, 2022

Woori taps senior deputy chief to lead flagship bank

South Korea’s Woori Financial Group said Monday it has nominated Senior Deputy President Lee Won-duk to lead its flagship commercial bank. The firm’s CEO recommendation committee last month had shortlisted three candidates for the position -- Lee, Park Hwa-jae, deputy president of Woori Bank‘s credit support unit and Jeon Sang-wook, deputy president of the bank’s risk management unit. Lee was tapped due to his “broad understanding” of the group’s core

Feb. 7, 2022

Record high of W20tr money flowed into IPO last year: data

The market saw a record high of 19.7 trillion won ($16.4 billion) flowing in to initial public offering deals last year, a 333.9 percent increase on-year from 4.5 trillion won the previous year, data from the nation’s financial watchdog showed Monday. Buoyed by the surge in local stock prices and ample liquidity, the number of firms that debuted on the market last year increased 27.1 percent to 89, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. Of the firms, 14 debuted on the main bour

Feb. 7, 2022

Lotte Chilsung Beverage remains in red in Q4

Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. on Monday reported its fourth-quarter net loss of 3.2 billion won ($2.7 million), remaining in the red compared with a year ago. The company said in a regulatory filing that operating income for the October-December period rose 469.8 percent on-year to 18.9 billion won. Revenue increased 18.2 percent to 599.6 billion won. The operating profit was 49.0 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonh

Feb. 7, 2022

Celltrion’s COVID-19 treatment gets safety nod in Australia

Celltrion has confirmed the safety of its inhalable antibody treatment for COVID-19 in a phase one clinical trial in Australia, the pharmaceutical company said Monday. Celltrion’s US partner Inhalon Biopharma completed the planned administering of the drugs for 24 volunteers after it acquired testing approval from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration in August. The results of the clinical trial proved the drug’s safety, as there were no serious adverse events from inha

Feb. 7, 2022

NextRise 2022, Seoul to kick off in June

NextRise 2022, Seoul, a global startup conference co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association and Korea Development Bank, is set to be held in Seoul on June 16 and 17, with aims to connect startups and their potential business partners and spur innovation among them. Launched in 2019, the conference has become Asia’s largest startup fair in terms of the size. Last year’s event attracted some 12,000 visitors from around the world despite the coronavirus pandemic. This y

Feb. 7, 2022

Samsung’s new gadgets to reuse discarded fishing nets

Samsung Electronics said Monday it plans to reuse discarded fishing nets as a new material for its handset devices as part of its sustainability strategy announced earlier this year. According to the South Korean tech giant, the repurposed ocean-bound plastics, also known as “ghost nets,” will be incorporated in Samsung’s new product lineup under its Mobile Experience division, starting with the new Galaxy devices to be unveiled in the Unpacked event on Feb. 9, at 10 a.m. US E

Feb. 7, 2022

Money raised through IPOs hits record high in 2021 amid ample liquidity, bullish sentiment

The amount of money South Korean firms raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) more than quadrupled to hit a record high last year thanks to ample liquidity and the overall bullish stock market sentiment, data showed Monday. A total of 89 companies went public in 2021 by listing stocks on the benchmark KOSPI and secondary tech-heavy KOSDAQ markets and raised a combined 19.7 trillion won ($16.4 billion), according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The money raised from

Feb. 7, 2022

S. Korean battery makers take up 30.4% of global market share in 2021

The combined global market share of three major South Korean battery makers declined last year from a year earlier, due largely to the growth of their Chinese rivals, data showed Monday. The cumulative market share of LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), SK Innovation Co. and Samsung SDI Co. came to 30.4 percent in the January-December period, down 4.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to market tracker SNE Research. LGES, which supplies electric vehicle batteries to Ford, Tesla

Feb. 7, 2022

Imported car sales fall 22% in Jan. amid chip shortages

Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 22 percent in January from a year earlier as chip shortages continued to disrupt vehicle production, an industry association said Monday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 17,361 units last month from 22,321 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. "Sales declined last month as chip supply issues continued to weigh on vehicle production and there was low

Feb. 7, 2022

S. Korean trade chief to visit Britain, Switzerland for trade meetings

South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo will visit London and Geneva this week to explore ways to enhance trade cooperation with Britain and various international organizations, his office said Monday. During his two-day visit to London beginning Monday, Yeo is scheduled to hold an initial meeting of the South Korea-Britain free trade agreement (FTA) committee with his British counterpart to check the implementation of the bilateral trade pact and plans for negotiations for its possible revisi

Feb. 7, 2022

Lotte Chemical to invest W602b in advanced materials biz

Lotte Chemical Corp., the petrochemical unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, said Monday it is spending 602 billion won ($502 million) to boost its advanced materials business, including building a new factory for electric vehicle battery materials. The company said it will spend about 233 billion won to build a new factory in its main domestic production complex in the southwestern city of Seosan to produce high-purity ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) used in ele

Feb. 7, 2022

Seoul stocks open lower on profit-taking

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as investors attempted to take profits from recent stock rallies. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 24 points, or 0.87 percent, to 2,726.26 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Most large caps traded lower, led by institutional sell-offs. Top cap Samsung Electronics retreated 1.62 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix lost 2.81 percent. Leading chemical firm LG Chem decreased 3.24 percent, and pharmaceutical giant Sa

Feb. 7, 2022

Online food market hits new high in 2021 amid pandemic

South Korea's online food market jumped more than 35 percent to touch an all-time high in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. The value of online food transactions in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at 58.5 trillion won ($48.8 billion) last year, up 35.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea and industry sources. The tally covers online transactions of food, groceries, farm produce, meat and fisheries goods, as well as food delivery se

Feb. 7, 2022

S. Korea's foreign reserves decline for 3rd straight month in January

South Korea's foreign reserves shrank for the third straight month in January due to a decline in dollar-converted value of holdings in other currencies, central bank data showed Monday. The country's foreign reserves came to $461.5 billion as of end-January, down $1.6 billion from the previous month, according to the data provided by the Bank of Korea (BOK). This marked the third straight month that foreign reserves have contracted since October when the amount hit a record high of $469.2 bil

Feb. 7, 2022

Mercedes-Benz fined W20.2b for emissions fiddling

Mercedes-Benz has been fined 20.2 billion won ($16.84 million) by the nation’s antitrust watchdog for fiddling with emissions readings in its diesel cars here. According to the Fair Trade Commission on Sunday, the German luxury carmaker falsely advertised some of its diesel vehicles as capable of reducing 90 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions, the main culprit of fine dust, and that it satisfies Euro 6 environmental standards. These claims were advertised extensively through the brand&

Feb. 6, 2022

Samsung Display offers OLED testing platform for free

Samsung Display has launched a new platform where its vendors can test their raw materials for OLED panels free of charge, the company said Sunday. The “Sync-OLED” platform, co-developed with the supercomputing center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, allows suppliers to run simulations on their materials and predict how they will affect the performance of OLED panels. The new platform is expected to shave costs significantly for partners. When partn

Feb. 6, 2022