CJ CheilJedang sets up global unit for overseas business

CJ CheilJedang, a food manufacturer under Korea’s CJ Group, said Tuesday it will reorganize its business units and refine global market strategies in a bid to efficiently promote its Korean food products worldwide. According to the food giant, it plans to divide its headquarters business into global and regional food unit. Namely the Global Headquarter will take charge in promoting its food products such as dumpling, chicken, kimchi, Korean hot sauce and dried laver overseas. The region

Jan. 4, 2022

Posco opens new R&D center

Posco Group said Tuesday that it has opened a new research and development center, called Posco N.EX.T Hub, to work on AI, secondary battery materials and hydrogen and low-carbon energy.  The establishment of the R&D center will become a platform for the group to secure the related technology and nurture the next-generation talent in line with the steelmaker‘s focus on low-carbon and eco-friendly business, the group said.  Posco N.EX.T Hub, located in Samseong-dong, will ov

Jan. 4, 2022

ShinhanCard launches ‘first’ NFT service

ShinhanCard said Tuesday it had launched a nonfungible token service for clients to store their pictures using the digital assets -- a first by a local financial company. NFTs are authenticated by blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers that serves as a public ledger for verifying ownership. Each NFT has a unique digital signature and digital objects, like images and videos, are traded as NFTs. “Our clients wouldn’t have to worry about making the actual tra

Jan. 4, 2022

Regulator to speed up review of Korean Air's Asiana takeover deal

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Tuesday it will accelerate the review of a deal by Korean Air Lines Co., the country's biggest carrier, to buy the debt-ridden Asiana Airlines Inc. In November 2020, Korean Air inked a deal to acquire a 63.88 percent stake in its smaller rival Asiana Airlines, a deal valued at 1.8 trillion won ($1.5 billion) that could create the world's 10th-biggest airline by fleet. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said in its 2022 policy plan that it will "swiftly

Jan. 4, 2022

GC Cell inks 1st licensing agreement with Indian firm

South Korean cell therapy developer GC Cell Corp. said Tuesday that it has signed the company's first licensing agreement with India-based Rivaara Immune to develop its liver cancer treatment. Under the agreement, Rivaara Immune has obtained the exclusive right to develop and commercialize Immuncell-LC, immunotherapy for liver cancer, in India. In return, GC Cell is entitled to receive an undisclosed upfront payment, as well as payments for the achievement of commercial milestones, in addition

Jan. 4, 2022

Online shopping hits record high in Nov.

Online shopping in South Korea hit a fresh record high in November, data showed Tuesday, in the latest sign that a growing number of people are using computers and mobile devices to buy things, ranging from clothes to electronic goods amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 17.5 trillion won ($14.7 billion) in November, up 16.5 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The November data marked the highest level

Jan. 4, 2022

Korea Shipbuilding wins ship orders worth W1.67tr

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Tuesday it has received 1.67 trillion won ($1.39 billion) worth of ship orders. Korea Shipbuilding obtained an order from a Europe-based shipper to build six 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) liquefied natural gas-powered container ships, the company said in a statement. The container carriers will be gradually delivered to the client from the first half of 2024, it said. In other deals, the company said it will build one LN

Jan. 4, 2022

[EXCLUSIVE] In Year of Tiger, Samsung lays out 'Tiger' strategy to beat Apple

LAS VEGAS -- In the Year of the Water Tiger, Samsung Electronics has set out its own “Tiger” strategy to seek a more aggressive push in the North American market and narrow its gap with Apple in the cutthroat smartphone market. Two days ahead of the opening of the CES electronics show in Las Vegas, some 40 Samsung executives gathered at a meeting in the US city to discuss this year‘s smartphone strategy with the acronym “Tiger.” The letters individually stand for:

Jan. 4, 2022

[CES 2022] Samsung’s virtual housekeeper at your service

LAS VEGAS -- Samsung Electronics’ artificial humans unveiled virtually last year might return as a personal assistant and housekeeper at CES 2022. According to the South Korean tech giant Monday, it will unveil an artificial intelligence-based “avatar” at CES 2022. The AI avatar will visualize a home into a digital world like a metaverse, locate users’ location in the real world and connect them with surrounding devices. “The AI avatar is a ‘life assistant

Jan. 4, 2022

[CES 2022] Samsung Galaxy S21 FE makes debut at CES

LAS VEGAS -- Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled the latest Galaxy S21 FE 5G, a budget version of its flagship Galaxy S21, at the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 held in Sin City. Coming in four different colors -– olive, lavender, white and graphite -- the mid-range smartphone has a sleek body just 7.9 millimeters thick but is equipped with a generous 4,500 milliampere-hour battery that supports quick charging in 30 minutes. The protruding rectangular camera bump on the back could n

Jan. 4, 2022

Seoul to open booth at CES 2022 to pitch city's innovative tech firms

The city of Seoul will open a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week to help pitch innovative technologies by smaller firms based in the city, officials said Tuesday. The Seoul booth will open inside the event's Eureka Park section, an exhibition area for startups, on the first day of the exhibition on Wednesday (US time), according to the Seoul Digital Foundation, a digital arm of the city government. Measuring 310 square meters and covering 25 tech firms from the

Jan. 4, 2022

BOK chief voices concerns over growing credit risk among households, self-employed

South Korea's central bank chief Tuesday urged local financial institutions to brace for the possibility of growing credit risk from heavily indebted households and self-employed as the country will continue to tighten loose financial and monetary policy put in place to prop up the pandemic-hit economy. Lee Ju-yeol, governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK), made the remarks in his written New Year's greetings for the financial community, adding that such credit risk could get worse amid rising exter

Jan. 4, 2022

Construction contracts gain 12.2% in Q3

The value of construction contracts in South Korea climbed more than 12 percent in the third quarter of 2021 thanks mainly to increased private projects, government data showed Tuesday. Civilian and public works contracts in Asia's fourth-largest economy were valued at 65.2 trillion won ($54.6 billion) in the July-September period, up 12.2 percent from a year ago, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Private deals swelled 12.9 percent on-year to 55 tri

Jan. 4, 2022

Home transactions plunge 42.5% in Nov. on lending curbs

Home transactions in South Korea tumbled nearly 43 percent on-year in November amid lending curbs and rising interest rates, government data showed Tuesday. The number of homes changing hands nationwide stood at 67,159 in November, down 42.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Compared with the previous month, the November tally was down 10.8 percent. The number of home transactions in the greater Seoul area, which includ

Jan. 4, 2022

Finance minister sees urgent need to stabilize inflation, housing market

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Monday the government needs to mobilize all available policy means to tame inflationary pressure and stabilize the housing market in the new year. Hong also said the country will prioritize supporting small merchants hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and vulnerable people and strengthen social safety nets. "The government faces an urgent need to stabilize inflation and the housing market at an early date by mobilizing all available means," Hong said.

Jan. 3, 2022

Marking best year, Korean tech giants set sight on quality beyond compare

Top executives of South Korean technology giants stressed on Monday their need to push relentlessly for unmatched quality in a long-term approach, as their electronics and semiconductor chip businesses are projected to yield the highest revenue for 2021, in their respective New Year’s addresses. Fierce competition on a global scale still leaves Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s leading electronics goods makers and chipmakers, with a long road ahead to secure a technology leade

Jan. 3, 2022

Rise or fall? All eyes on 2022 Seoul home prices

SEJONG -- The average trading price of homes in Seoul posted 39.99 million won ($33,500) per 3.3 square meters, which is equivalent to 1 “pyeong,” at the end of 2021, data from KB Kookmin Bank and Naver showed. This indicates that the price for an 84-square-meter unit, a popular size in Korea, in the capital has surpassed 1 billion won on average. In the capital’s priciest district of Gangnam-gu, the average price peaked at an all-time high of 70 million won per 3.3 square m

Jan. 3, 2022

Hyundai's Dec. sales fall 11% amid chip shortage

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker, said Monday its sales fell 11 percent last month from a year earlier amid global chip shortages. Hyundai Motor sold 334,242 vehicles in December, down from 375,193 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales declined 3.5 percent to 66,112 units from 68,486 during the mentioned period, as the lack of semiconductor parts continued to affect vehicle production and sales, it said. Overseas sales also dropped 13 percent t

Jan. 3, 2022

SsangYong's Dec. sales fall 17% amid chip shortage

SsangYong Motor Co. said Monday its sales fell 17 percent last month from a year earlier as a prolonged chip shortage continued to affect its vehicle production. SsangYong Motor sold 8,755 vehicles in December, down from 10,561 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales declined 31 percent to 5,810 units last month from 8,449 a year ago, while exports climbed 39 percent to 2,975 units from 2,142 during the same period, it said. For the whole of 2021, its sales dippe

Jan. 3, 2022

Banking chiefs say digital transformation key to survival

Heads of South Korea’s top five traditional banking groups on Monday pointed to swift digital transformation and bolstering competitiveness of diverse business units as the main requirements for their survival in the new year. KB Financial Group, the nation’s No. 1 banking group in terms of total assets, must become the nation’s top financial platform and provide customers with the best digital services, its Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo said in his New Year’s speech. Yoon h

Jan. 3, 2022