Shinsegae buys stake in Seoul Auction to explore art, NFTs

Shinsegae and Seoul Auction are teaming up to expand operations in arts, NFTs and metaverse fields, South Korea’s largest art auction house said Thursday. The department store operator will purchase 28 billion-won ($23.6 million) of new shares issued by Seoul Auction, according to a DART announcement posted by the two firms on Wednesday.  When the acquisition is finalized on Jan. 6, Shinsegae will own a 4.82 percent stake in Seoul Auction. The firm is currently the largest art auc

Dec. 30, 2021

Samsung's foldable phone sales up 4 times from last year

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it sold four times as many foldable Galaxy Z series phones this year as last year, further solidifying its lead in the fast-growing new smartphone segment. While the South Korean tech giant did not disclose the exact tally, the total sales of the Galaxy Z series is believed to be around 8-9 nine million units this year, led by the popularity of the Galaxy Z Fold3, which folds in half like a book, and the clamshell-type Galaxy Z Flip3, among young tech-savv

Dec. 30, 2021

Bank mortgage rates hit highest mark in over 7 years in Nov.

South Korean banks' mortgage rates hit the highest level in more than 7 years in November amid rising borrowing costs, central bank data showed Thursday, Banks' mortgage loan rate averaged 3.51 percent in November, up 0.25 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK) This marked the highest since July 2014, when the corresponding rate was 3.54 percent.   Banks' unsecured loan rate also rose 0.54 percentage point to 5.16 percent last month,

Dec. 30, 2021

S. Korean builder sentiment improves for 2nd month in Dec.

South Korea's construction business sentiment gained for a second month in December thanks to increased year-end orders, a poll showed Thursday. The construction business survey index (CBSI) came to 92.5 this month, up 4.1 points from the previous month, according to the survey by the Construction and Economy Research Institute of Korea. Yet the December figure remains below par. A reading below 100 indicates builders are pessimistic about the current state of the construction industry and out

Dec. 30, 2021

S. Korea's e-commerce imports hit new high in 2021 amid pandemic

South Korea's imports via e-commerce reached a new all-time high in 2021 as more people purchased foreign goods online, government data showed Thursday. The country's e-commerce imports stood at $4.15 billion in the first 11 months of this year, up 25.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The amount for the 11-month period surpasses the full-year figure for 2020. The number of e-commerce transactions came to 79 million during the period, up 40.6

Dec. 30, 2021

40 biz groups fined for failure to adhere to public filing requirement

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Thursday it has imposed a combined fine of 912 million won ($769,500) on 107 affiliates of 40 conglomerates for their failure to properly make public filings on major business information. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it has looked into whether 2,612 affiliates of 71 large business groups subject to public filing obligations have fully made public disclosures of key details about business operations. Large business groups with assets of 5 trillion

Dec. 30, 2021

Samsung denies report on Biogen buyout deal

Samsung Group on Thursday denied a local media report that it was in talks with Biogen to acquire the US biotech company in a deal worth 50 trillion won ($42.2 billion). Calling the report “groundless,” a Samsung spokesperson said no such talks were underway and declined to comment further. Samsung’s pharmaceutical manufacturing unit, Samsung Biologics, also denied the report in a regulatory filing released later in the day. Earlier in the day, the Korea Economic Daily re

Dec. 30, 2021

Air Busan to open Vladivostok route in Feb.

Air Busan Co., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Thursday it will open the Incheon-Vladivostok route in February to meet business travel demand.   Air Busan will offer flights to the Russian far eastern port city every two weeks from Feb. 5, the company said in a statement. "There is a growing outbound travel demand to Vladivostok for business purposes. Passenger travel demand is also expected to rise once the COVID-19 pandemic slows down," the statement

Dec. 30, 2021

SK hynix closes 1st phase of Intel's NAND business acquisition, names new entity Solidigm

SK hynix Inc, South Korea's key memory chip maker, said Thursday it has closed the first phase of the transaction to acquire Intel's NAND and solid-state drive (SSD) business, and will name the newly established subsidiary Solidigm. The announcement came eight days after it received the merger clearance from China's State Administration for Market Regulation, the last remaining major regulatory hurdle for its $9 billion acquisition of Intel's SSD business and the Dalian NAND flash manufacturin

Dec. 30, 2021

Seoul shares open higher on bargain hunting

South Korean shares opened a tad higher Thursday as investors snapped up tech blue-chip bargains following a drop in the previous session. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 4.31 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,997.60 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Tech and bio shares led the overall gains. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.63 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix spiked 3.15 percent. But auto, steel and chemicals were in negative terrain to keep the r

Dec. 30, 2021

Industrial output rises by most in 17 months in Nov. amid economic recovery

South Korea's industrial output increased by the most in 17 months in November in the latest sign that economic recovery momentum has been extended despite the pandemic, data showed Thursday. Industrial output grew 3.2 percent in November from the previous month, a turnaround from a 1.9 percent on-month fall in October, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the largest on-month gain since June 2020, when industrial output went up 3.9 percent. The rebound came after ind

Dec. 30, 2021

Slim modiolar electrode, early ‘switch-on’ yield better cochlear implant outcomes: study

A slimmer cochlear implant device design and its early activation are likely to lead to better hearing in cochlear implant patients, according to professor Choi Byung-Yoon, an otorhinolaryngology specialist. Cochlear implants, which remains the only way to restore hearing for people with severe to profound deafness, work by translating sound into electrical signals that can be registered by auditory nerves. The implant consists of external components worn outside, much like a hearing aid,

Dec. 29, 2021

S. Korea to open up public Wi-Fi in network outage, disasters

The Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday it will open up public Wi-Fi networks in case of network outages to help citizens gain access to basic telecommunication services. The decision came two months after KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, suffered a nationwide network outage of services due to a routing error in the process of upgrading its equipment. The outage crippled businesses, including schools, restaurants and other facilities, for over an hour on Oct. 25. The go

Dec. 29, 2021

ESG awareness expanded but without plans implemented: survey

South Korean companies acknowledge the importance of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) but not many are integrating ESG into their businesses. According to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul on Wednesday, 70 percent of 300 domestic companies that participated in their survey on ESG integration responded that ESG is important. The main reason to why they consider ESG important was because it has a positive effect on business management performance with 42.9

Dec. 29, 2021

Deaths outnumber births for 24 consecutive months

SEJONG -- The number of deaths outstripped that of births for the 24th consecutive month in South Korea, data showed Wednesday, suggesting an obvious demographic downhill phase and the coming crisis over workforce. According to Statistics Korea, deaths outnumbered births by 7,047 -- 27,783 versus 20,736 -- in October, amid falling marriage rates and record-low fertility rates. The population decline for Korean nationals -- when changes in the tally for foreign residents in the nation were not

Dec. 29, 2021

NongHyup Bank introduces antiviral pin pad

NongHyup Bank said Wednesday that it has developed a pin pad that kills germs like the coronavirus with a UV light after customers have used it to enter their passcodes. The pad, the first of its kind adopted by a local bank, will be used at NongHyup branches nationwide after a trial run at its key offices in Seoul, the bank said. It added that the pad does not pose health risks. Meanwhile, Lotte Chemical also said it has come up with an antiviral plastic to be used for credit cards issued by

Dec. 29, 2021

KIPO vows to take lead in setting international rules on AI inventions

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) said it will play a leading role in setting up international rules on creations and inventions by artificial intelligence next year. The KIPO, a member of the Intellectual Property Five (IP5), or a forum of the five largest intellectual property offices including those of the US, Europe, China and Japan, said it will also discuss among the IP5 ways to improve protection of trademarks and designs in the virtual world. “As the digital transfor

Dec. 29, 2021

Seoul shares end lower on ex-dividend date, profit-taking

Seoul shares closed lower Wednesday on ex-dividend date and profit-taking amid lingering concerns over the economic implications of the omicron strain. The local currency rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 26.95 points, or 0.89 percent, to 2,993.29 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 536.6 million shares worth some 10.8 trillion won (about $9 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 439 to 438. Institutions and foreigners sol

Dec. 29, 2021

Manufacturer to pay compensation for ‘toxic’ baby bathtubs

A local manufacturer and a distributor of a plastic baby bathtub that was previously recalled for containing high levels of toxic environmental hormones will have to pay compensation to thousands of customers. The Korea Consumer Agency said Wednesday it advised the baby tub’s manufacturer, Daehyeon Chemical, and its intermediate distributor, Kihyun Industries, to pay 50,000 won ($42) to each customer who used the product as compensation. While the tub was mostly sold at Daiso stores, t

Dec. 29, 2021

ICT-powered use of healthcare data to have ‘dynamic effect,’ says vice minister

South Korea’s vice finance minister said Wednesday that the nation’s healthcare data combined with information and communications technology will have a “dynamic effect” on the economy. “With the passage of three data-related bills last year, enactment of the Data Framework Act and pursuit of the data dam project has allowed us to secure a systematic platform to enter a data economy,” Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-won said in a press conference for healthcare

Dec. 29, 2021