S. Korea signs contract with Pfizer to buy 30m COVID-19 vaccine doses

South Korea has signed a contract with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to purchase 30 million doses of the drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in 2022, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday. The deal is part of Seoul’s plan to procure 50 million vaccine booster shots for the country’s population of 52 million, according to KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyeong. Pfizer’s first batch will ship out in the first quarter of next year, the KDCA added. Under t

Aug. 13, 2021

Samsung shares slump amid leader’s release on parole

Shares of Samsung Group’s major units lost ground just as its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was released on parole Friday, seven months after being return to prison for bribery involving former President Park Geun-hye. Shares of Samsung Electronics, the group’s flagship company and world’s largest memory chip maker, closed at 74,400 won ($63.66), down 3.38 percent from the previous session’s close. The stock began trading at 1.43 percent lower and further dropped to hit i

Aug. 13, 2021

Seoul stocks suffer weeklong slump on extended tech losses

South Korean stocks plunged more than 1 percent Friday, extending their losing streak to a seventh session, as major chipmakers came under heavy sell-offs by foreign investors amid concerns of a fall in chip prices. The Korean won declined against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) retreated 37.09 points, or 1.16 percent, to close at 3,171.29 points, after hitting an intraday low of 3,146.76 points. Trading volume was high at about 684 million shares worth s

Aug. 13, 2021

Hyundai Motor’s Alabama plant hits 5 million mark

Hyundai Motor said Friday its manufacturing plant in Alabama in the US has produced 5 million vehicles in total since the facility began operations in May 2005. Some 2.56 million Sonatas were produced at the plant, as well as 1.48 million Elantras, 0.9 million Santa Fes, 36,989 Tucsons, and 1,784 Santa Cruzes. A Santa Cruz built in late July brought the automaker to the 5 million milestone. “The 5 millionth vehicle represents a tremendous achievement for Hyundai Motor North America. We

Aug. 13, 2021

Samsung Bioepis sees 30% jump in biosimilar sales in H1

South Korean drugmaker Samsung Bioepis said Friday that global sales of five major biosimilar products increased 30 percent on-year in the first half of this year. Sales of the five biosimilar products during the first half reached $166 million, from $128 million from the same period a year earlier, according to an earnings report of its global pharmaceutical partner Organon International, a spinoff of US-based Merck. The five products are etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, trastuzumab and

Aug. 13, 2021

Government vows to curb soaring food prices ahead of Chuseok

The South Korean government will increase supplies of key fruits and vegetables from its stockpiles to stabilize market prices ahead of the Chuseok holiday set for Sept. 20-22, First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said Friday. “Prices of agricultural, livestock and fisheries products, which advanced 9.6 percent in July, continued a downward trend for a fifth consecutive month, but the figure still remained at a high level on the back of bird flu outbreaks coupled with an increase in

Aug. 13, 2021

[From the Scene] Hundreds gather to watch Lee leave jail

UIWANG, Gyeonggi Province -- Lee Jae-yong, de facto leader of South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Electronics, has been released on parole Friday. At 10 a.m. on Friday, Lee walked free from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province after being jailed for bribery. Around 300 citizens and global media thronged the area in the hours before Lee’s release. In front of the detention center’s gate, members of conservative civic groups held up placards and ba

Aug. 13, 2021

Hyundai's vehicle production surpasses 5 million at US plant

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. said Friday accumulated vehicle production at its US plant has exceeded 5 million units since it began operations in May 2005. Hyundai Motor has produced 2.56 million units of the Sonata sedan, 1.48 million Avante compacts, 900,000 Santa Fe SUVs, 37,000 Tucson SUVs and 1,800 Santa Cruz compact pickup trucks at the Alabama plant, the company said in a statement. The 5 millionth vehicle produced in the 370,000-unit-a-year plant was Hyundai's first-ever pickup, the

Aug. 13, 2021

Foreign investors remain net sellers of Korean stocks in July

Foreign investors remained net sellers of South Korean stocks last month, extending their selling spree for a third consecutive month, data showed Friday. Foreigners sold a net 3.77 trillion won ($3.26 billion) worth of local stocks in July, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). British investors sold a net 2.3 trillion won of stocks last month, while investors from Middle Eastern nations net purchased 500 billion won worth of stocks, according to the FSS. As of

Aug. 13, 2021

Export prices up for 8th month in July

South Korea's export prices rose in July, marking the eighth straight monthly gain amid a strong recovery in exports, central bank data showed Friday. The country's export price index, in terms of the local currency, rose 3.5 percent in July from the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading marked the eighth consecutive month of an on-month rise. In June, the index rose 0.7 percent on-month. From a year earlier, the index jumped 16.9 percent

Aug. 13, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on extended tech losses

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday as giant chipmakers suffered an extended slump amid concerns of a price fall of DRAM. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 11.9 points, or 0.37 percent, to 3,196.48 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks declined below the 3,200-point mark, largely on chip heavyweights' weeklong losses Foreigners continued to sell shares of large chip companies, following brokerage reports tat said demand for chips may decrease after t

Aug. 13, 2021

Volume of damaged banknotes dips in H1 amid pandemic

Both volume and face value of damaged banknotes found in South Korea dipped in the first half of this year as people used cash less amid a non-contact consumption trend due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the central bank said Friday. In the January-June period, the face value of damaged banknotes discarded by the Bank of Korea came to 1.03 trillion won ($890 million), compared with 2.69 trillion won for the same period last year, according to the BOK. The volume of damaged banknotes also plunged 36

Aug. 13, 2021

Finance minister, FSC head in self-quarantine after employees contract COVID-19

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and Eun Sung-soo, head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), went into self-quarantine Thursday after having come into contact with government employees infected with COVID-19, officials said. Hong, who has come into contact with a ministry employee infected with the delta variant, will self-isolate until Thursday next week in line with health authorities' antivirus guidelines, although he has been fully vaccinated and tested negative recently. Due to his s

Aug. 12, 2021

Despite major advances, Korea still behind Japan in basic sciences: report

South Korea surpassed Japan in major economic indicators over the past 30 years, but still lags behind in technological competitiveness, a report published by the Federation of Korean Industries said Thursday. The report, which compared the economic development of the two countries from the early 1990s onward, cited several international rankings to back up its claim for Korea’s advances. The 2020 IMD Competitiveness Ranking, for one, placed South Korea at 23rd place and Japan at 34th

Aug. 12, 2021

[Anniversary Special] Pandemic fuels the rise of startups in South Korea

In early March, South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang made its landmark debut on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $4.6 billion in an initial public offering that shattered expectations. The successful debut of the South Korean flag-waving Softbank-backed startup in the US stock market soon became a major talking point in an economy heavily dominated by a handful of conglomerates, capturing the excitement surrounding the growing number of local startups. The move also followed a year marked

Aug. 12, 2021

SK’s vaccine units, EcoPro BM join MSCI Korea index

Morgan Stanley Capital International announced Thursday that it has added three South Korean stocks -- SK ie technology, SK Bioscience and EcoPro BM -- to its global and regional equity index via August’s quarterly review. The US-based finance firm also removed KMW, the South Korean wireless communications devices producer, from the list. The changes will take effect after the market closes on Aug. 31, according to the company. The rebalancing result was based on the listed firms’

Aug. 12, 2021

Fiscal chief says new COVID-19 wave will ‘inevitably’ dent economy

After showing modest signs of recovery, South Korea’s economy is going to face pressure from the ongoing fourth wave of COVID-19 starting from this month, the country’s top economic policymaker said Thursday. “As the ripple effect of the fourth wave of the pandemic seems to be inevitable to some extent from August, it is necessary to stay alert to minimize the shock and to maintain the recovery trend,” Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said during an economic meeting at the

Aug. 12, 2021

Celltrion’s COVID-19 treatment wins emergency use authorization in Brazil

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion said Thursday that the company’s COVID-19 antibody treatment has won an emergency approval from the Brazilian government. According to Celltrion, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency gave emergency use authorization to the company’s COVID-19 treatment Regkirona, or CT-P59. The approval was based on results from all three phases of the clinical study of COVID-19 treatment Rekirona, as well as preclinical studies that suggest the effic

Aug. 12, 2021

GC Pharma reports positive clinical trial results of immunoglobulin product

GC Pharma on Thursday reported positive top-line results from the phase 3 clinical trial of its immunoglobulin product GC5107. The clinical study results have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Immunology, the company said. The phase 3 study was conducted on 49 patients who were diagnosed with primary immunodeficiency. The patients aged between 3-70 received infusions of GC5107 doses every 21 or 28 days for 12 months at 17 medical institutions in the US and Canada. Th

Aug. 12, 2021

[News Focus] Is the game industry’s pandemic boom over?

The gaming industry’s famous 3N -- Nexon, NCSoft and Netmarble -- have all suffered earnings shock in the second quarter of this year, due to the absence of new releases and increased labor costs from pay raises. The Tokyo-listed Nexon, the biggest of the three game developers, saw its revenue and operating profit plunge 13 percent and 42 percent to 56 billion yen ($507.3 million) and 15.7 billion yen due to lackluster results in Korean and Chinese markets. MapleStory, one of Nexon&r

Aug. 12, 2021