Lee Jae-myung’s pledge to beef up FSS’ power on insurance disputes raises eyebrows

A campaign pledge by ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has sent jitters through the finance sector as he vowed to hand the nation’s financial watchdog stronger legal authority to side with consumers when settling disputes with insurers. The ruling party’s presidential election campaign committee on Friday announced that Lee seeks to ban insurers from not conceding to orders from the Financial Supervisory Service to financially compensate their customers without a &ld

Jan. 10, 2022

S. Korea edges rivals in customer satisfaction

South Korea consumers were found to be more satisfied with local goods and services on average last year than their peers in the US, Japan and Singapore, according to the National Consumer Satisfaction Index annually published by the Korea Productivity Center. The index -- an indicator of not only user satisfaction but economic performance of companies, government agencies and the macroeconomy as a whole -- is adopted by a little over 30 countries globally, which use the same metrics to identif

Jan. 10, 2022

Korea outstrips OECD average in per capita GDP for 1st time

SEJONG -- South Korea has surpassed the average of members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in gross domestic product per capita, for the first time, data showed Monday. According to the French-based organization, Korea ranked 18th among the 38 members in GDP per capita with $45,363 in 2020. This exceeded the estimate of the OECD average at $45,182, while the nation had continued to stay under the average for decades. Figures for Korea and the OECD average were $18,

Jan. 10, 2022

KT's IPTV services suffer disruption due to power supply glitch

KT Corp., a major South Korean mobile carrier, said Monday its internet protocol television (IPTV) services were disrupted for nearly an hour, just three months after the company suffered a major network outage. The company's Olleh TV services were interrupted from 10:42 p.m. to 11:40 p.m. on Sunday due to a technical glitch in the power supply device of the signal distributor, according to KT and the Ministry of Science and ICT. Among 304 channels, 205 channels -- including the state-funded b

Jan. 10, 2022

LG joins IBM Quantum Network

LG Electronics said Monday it has joined the IBM Quantum Network as a member to further explore its applications for quantum computing required in the field of artificial intelligence, connected cars, internet of things and robotics. LG Electronics, an electronics arm of South Korea‘s fourth-largest conglomerate, was the latest to take part in the alliance of over 170 entities. Those taking part in the community as a member, partner or quantum hub are given access to IBM‘s quantum c

Jan. 10, 2022

Samsung’s QD-OLED display certified by SGS

Samsung Display, the display panel maker arm of Samsung Electronics, said Monday its latest quantum-dot organic light emitting diode display technology was certified by evaluation services provider SGS. The QD-OLED, touted as the technology to support next-generation TV picture quality, had received three certifications for True Color Tones, Pure RGB Luminance and Ultrawide Viewing Angle upon performance testing by the Switzerland-based SGS. Samsung Display said in a statement the certificati

Jan. 10, 2022

Korea Shipbuilding wins ship orders worth W1.3tr

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has received 1.33 trillion won ($1.1 billion) worth of ship orders. Korea Shipbuilding obtained three separate orders from shippers in Europe and Latin America to build four 16,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers, four 2,500-TEU container ships and one liquefied natural gas carrier, the company said in a statement. The 2,500-TEU and 16,000-TEU container ships will be delivered to the unidentified clien

Jan. 10, 2022

SK Geocentric to build plastic waste recycling factory in S. Korea with US startup

SK Geocentric Co., a chemical materials unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Monday it will build a plastic waste recycling factory in South Korea jointly with a U.S. startup as part of efforts to advance its green business. SK Geocentric said it signed an initial terms agreement with Purecycle Technologies Inc., a Florida-based plastic recycling company, to construct a polypropylene recycling factory in the industrial city of Ulsan, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The sig

Jan. 10, 2022

Sales of short-term bonds swell 20.6% in 2021

Sales of short-term corporate bonds in South Korea jumped more than 20 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Local companies issued 1,243.7 trillion won ($1.04 trillion) worth of short-term bonds, up 20.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD). Short-term bonds refer to those that come due within one year, with the minimum amount of 100 million won or more per issue. Sales of general short-

Jan. 10, 2022

FDI pledges made to S. Korea hit all-time high in 2021

Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges made to South Korea surged 42.3 percent in 2021 from a year earlier to reach an all-time high, data showed Monday. Foreigners pledged to invest $29.51 billion in South Korea in 2021, compared with $20.7 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The 2021 figure hit an all-time high, beating the previous record of $26.9 billion logged in 2018, it added. The amount of investment that actually arrived in So

Jan. 10, 2022

LX International to bring in 1,100 tons of urea from China this week

LX International Corp., the general trading arm of LX Group, said Monday 1,100 tons of urea will arrive in South Korea from China this week. The shipment -- the first batch from an import contract with China for 10,000 tons of urea -- will arrive in the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday, LX International said. In November, the trading company secured the amount in a move to help address a supply crunch of urea solution, a key fluid needed in diesel cars to cut emissions. The firm sai

Jan. 10, 2022

Seoul stocks open lower on US rate hike worries

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as investors took to the sidelines in the wake of the US Federal Reserve minutes last week that signaled possibilities of aggressive tapering policy. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 24.17 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,930.72 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.96 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.01 percent amid concerns that the Fed may push harsher-than-expe

Jan. 10, 2022

Foreigners continue to be net buyers of S. Korean securities in December

Foreigners continued to be net buyers of South Korean stocks and bonds in December, data showed Monday. According to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), foreigners picked up a net 4.36 trillion won worth of stocks listed on the Kospi and secondary Kosdaq markets last month. Foreigners continued to buy more shares than they sold for the second straight month since November. As of end-December, foreigners owned 785.23 trillion won worth of local stocks, which accounted for 28

Jan. 10, 2022

[CES 2022] SK to launch Sapeon Inc. for AI chip supremacy

LAS VEGAS – SK Group’s three tech units, SK hynix, SK Telecom and SK Square, have teamed up to launch a new ICT technology development and investment body, called SK ICT Alliance. Their first project will be Sapeon Inc. where the three firms will make co-investments in the US to target the burgeoning AI chip market, the group said. During a press conference held on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Thursday, top executives, inclu

Jan. 10, 2022

[CES 2022] Hyundai Mobis to focus on enhancing software power

LAS VEGAS -- Software development is no longer a priority for only IT companies, but also for carmakers. “The car industry itself is transitioning from being manufacturing-based to digital-based, meaning that software is becoming important than ever. Hyundai Mobis is trying to combine the mechanical strength it has with software to provide a better service,” said Cheon Jae-seung, head of the Fundamental and Advanced Lab of Hyundai Mobis, speaking to reporters at the Consumer Electro

Jan. 9, 2022

[CES 2022] Hyundai Motor aims for chip self-reliance in long run

LAS VEGAS -- Seeking control of its own destiny, Hyundai Motor is making efforts to be self-reliant in automotive chips, its US chief told reporters at CES 2022 on Thursday. “Definitely, as one of the big OEMs, we cannot be dependent on external factors to try to have control of your own destiny, right? So all OEM groups are making efforts to be self-dependent. And this is not an exception for us,” said Jose Munoz, Hyundai Motor’s global chief operating officer and president

Jan. 9, 2022

Hyundai: half of its US sales will be eco-friendly cars by 2030

Hyundai Motor Co. said it aims for half of its US vehicle sales to be environment friendly models by 2030 while planning to produce electric vehicles in the world's most important automobile market, a company executive has said. Jose Munoz, Hyundai's global chief operating officer, made the comments in an interview with a group of Korean reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show 2022. The South Korean carmaker is fully prepared to raise the proportion of eco-frie

Jan. 9, 2022

SK becomes No. 2 shareholder of US Center for Breakthrough Medicines

SK Inc. has invested $350 million (421.4 billion won) in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a Philadelphia-based cell and gene therapy firm, to become the second largest shareholder, SK Group’s holding company said Sunday. With the investment, SK Inc. has secured a strong foothold in the US cell and gene therapies market. The transaction came nine months after the holding company acquired Yposkesi, a French developer and manufacturer of cell and gene therapy products, in March. As a

Jan. 9, 2022

Experts divided on timeline of BOK's first rate hike of the year

Experts remain divided over whether Korea’s central bank will carry out a rate hike at its first rate-setting meeting of the year set for Friday. The upcoming monetary policy board meeting comes as the Korean economy continues to struggle with high inflationary pressure and the US Federal Reserve’s recent signal of a sooner-than-expected rate hike. A majority of experts see a rate hike coming Friday or next month, and the Bank of Korea is expected to raise its benchmark interest

Jan. 9, 2022

Lotte E&C and Hyundai Engineering win orders to build giant chemical complex in Indonesia

Lotte Engineering & Construction Co. and Hyundai Engineering Co. said Sunday they have signed $2.39 billion deals to construct a giant petrochemical complex in Indonesia. Under separate deals with Lotte Chemical Corp., Lotte E&C and Hyundai Engineering will build the complex in Cilegon, a coastal industrial city about 90 kilometers northwest of Jakarta, by 2025. Lotte E&C's stake is $1.63 billion while Hyundai Engineering's stake is $757 million. The complex will have an annual ca

Jan. 9, 2022