ICT companies spent over W40tr on R&D in 2019

South Korea's information and communication technology (ICT) companies spent more than 40 trillion won ($35.3 billion) on research and development in 2019, data showed Thursday, as the country focuses on developing new 5G and artificial intelligence technology. ICT companies' total R&D spending reached 41.4 trillion won in 2019, up 3 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT. By sector, 38.1 trillion won, or 91.9 percent of the total, was spent on informa

April 1, 2021

Tax agency launches probes into property-related tax evasion

South Korea's tax agency said Thursday it has launched probes into suspected tax evasion by 165 people and entities that sought to take profit from speculative or illegal property transactions. The National Tax Service (NTS) said it has cracked down on 158 individuals and others over alleged tax evasion. The tax agency has been looking into land transactions made around six public housing development sites in satellite cities outside Seoul as part of the country's efforts to stem property spec

April 1, 2021

S. Korea to encourage 5G competition through budget mobile providers

South Korea's ICT ministry said Thursday it aims to encourage more competition in the local 5G market through the release of affordable mobile data plans from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). The ICT ministry said 10 MVNOs in the country, including Sejong Telecom Inc., will release new data plans starting this month that provide up to 30 gigabytes of data for around 40,000 won ($35). The country's major telecom operators -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- do not currentl

April 1, 2021

Doosan Logistics Solutions offers sorting system to Vietnam Post

System integrator Doosan Logistics Solutions Co. (DLS) said Thursday that it has provided an automation sorting system to Vietnam Post, Vietnam's largest delivery company. The subsidiary wholly owned by Doosan Corp., a holding company of Doosan Group, plans to aggressively tap into the Vietnamese e-commerce market and delivery automation market with the latest provision of automation equipment to a center of the state-run Vietnam Post in Da Nang, a central port city of Vietnam, DLS said. The p

April 1, 2021

LG Electronics launches new 17-inch laptop

LG Electronics Inc. on Thursday launched a new 17-inch laptop boasting high performance as the South Korean tech giant eyes boosting notebook sales amid the pandemic-induced remote working and distance learning trends. The new model in the LG UltraGear 17 series comes with a price tag of 2.24 million won ($1,980) here, according to LG. The new UltraGear 17 is equipped with a 17-inch Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array display that has a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels, according to the company.

April 1, 2021

Samsung to log robust Q1 earnings on robust mobile biz: analysts

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to report robust earnings in the first quarter of the year, analysts here said Thursday, as its mobile business has apparently offset relatively sluggish performance from its semiconductor unit. The South Korean tech titan was projected to log 60.64 trillion won (US$53.7 billion) in sales in the first three months of 2021, up 10.9 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit was estimated to surge 38.8 percent on-year to 8.95 trillion won over the peri

April 1, 2021

Online lender K-Bank enjoys rapid growth in Q1

K-Bank, South Korea's first internet-only bank, said Thursday its customers and deposits grew exponentially in the first quarter of the year amid the coronavirus outbreak. The number of customers stood at 3.91 million as of the end of March, 1.72 million more than three months earlier, said the lender, which is led by telecom giant KT Corp. The number of new customers is far more than the number it had attracted in the three years since its inception. Outstanding customer deposits came to 8.7

April 1, 2021

Hyundai teases Santa Cruz ahead of US launch this month

Hyundai Motor Co. on Thursday released a teaser for the Santa Cruz pickup ahead of its unveiling in the United States this month. The Santa Cruz sport adventure vehicle (SAV), a model that sits between a sport utility vehicle and a pickup truck, boasts a bold yet sophisticated design, advanced connectivity and an all-wheel drive platform, the company said in a statement. "Santa Cruz, with its bold styling, breaks open all-new segment territory, both for Hyundai and the industry as a whole

April 1, 2021

Korea Shipbuilding wins W566b in orders for 7 ships

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Thursday it has signed deals worth 566 billion won ($502 million) with companies from Asia, Europe and Africa to build seven ships. Under a 247 billion-won deal with an Asian company, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a unit of KSOE, will deliver two 98,000-cubic-meter ethanol carriers by January 2023, KSOE said. The vessels, which are 230 meters long, 36.6 meters wide and 22.8 meters high, were ordered for the first time this year acro

April 1, 2021

Convenience store chain CU opens 1st outlet in Malaysia

CU has opened its first outlet in Malaysia as part of its overseas push, the operator of South Korea's top convenience store chain said Thursday. The 165-square-meter outlet started operations at a shopping mall in a middle-class neighborhood in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, according to BGF Retail Co. South Korean goods account for 60 percent of all products it carries. The store also sells CU's popular private-label products and such "Korean street foods" as "tteokbok

April 1, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on US stimulus plan

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as investor sentiment was boosted by a massive infrastructure project by the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 26.6 points, or 0.87 percent, to 3,088.02 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the US President Joe Biden announced a $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal that is expected to quicken the global economic rebound and benefit local exporters. In Seoul, top cap Samsung Electronics adde

April 1, 2021

5 firms to recall nearly 230,000 vehicles over faulty parts

Hyundai Motor Co., BMW Korea and three other companies will voluntarily recall nearly 240,000 vehicles to fix faulty components, the transport ministry said Thursday. This is the latest in a series of recalls by carmakers operating in South Korea and vehicle importers due to problems with vehicle components. The five companies, including Kia Corp., Ford Sales & Service Korea Inc. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) Korea, are recalling a combined 238,914 units due to faulty components

April 1, 2021

Exports up for 5 months in Feb., recovery likely to be further extended

South Korea's exports advanced 16.6 percent in March from a year earlier on the back of solid demand for chips and autos to extend their gains for the fifth consecutive month, data showed Thursday, stoking speculation that recovery in Asia's fourth-largest economy is gathering pace. Outbound shipments came to US$53.8 billion last month, compared with $46.1 billion a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Imports rose 18.8 percent to $49.6 bi

April 1, 2021

SK IE Technology to go public on Seoul bourse in May

SK IE Technology Co., a battery materials subsidiary of SK Innovation Co., said Wednesday it will commence the initial public offering process for its Seoul bourse debut in May. SKIET, which makes lithium-ion battery separators, said it will float 21.4 million shares on the KOSPI market at prices between 78,000 won and 105,000 won, which would make its market value up to 7.5 trillion won ($6.6 billion). SKIET will issue 8.5 million new shares and SK Innovation will sell 12.8 million shares i

March 31, 2021

Kimchi could help ease coronavirus symptoms: study

Kimchi, South Korea’s traditional fermented cabbage dish, could help mitigate coronavirus symptoms, a recent study showed. The research was jointly conducted by the government-funded World Institute of Kimchi and Jean Bousquet, an honorary professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Montpellier University, France. The study found that the intake of kimchi could lead to a milder case of the coronavirus due to the bioactive compounds present in the dish. A metabolite result from fermentation, the

March 31, 2021

LG Innotek’s labor union continues to reach out to society

The labor union of LG Innotek has sent various items to COVID-19 front-line workers as a token of appreciation for their contributions to society, the company said Wednesday. Various branches of the union organized the donations on their own, which in total amount to 33 million won ($29,000). The Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, chapter, for instance, prepared stationery sets for 111 nurses and nursing assistants whose children began school this year, along with letters expressing their grati

March 31, 2021

Former US trade representative urges Korea to join CPTPP

Former acting deputy US trade representative Wendy Cutler said on Wednesday that Korea should consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and wait for the US to follow suit. “Korea was one of the major negotiating partners for the TPP, but missed the opportunity because it waited for too long,” Cutler said during the 1st CPTPP Trade Forum organized by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She attended the session via virtual link

March 31, 2021

Samsung SDI joins international push for deep-sea mining ban

South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI is among the first four companies in the world to sign on to a World Wildlife Fund call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, according to an announcement by WWF on Wednesday. The battery-making affiliate of Samsung Electronics joined Google, BMW and Volvo in committing not to source any minerals -- such as cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese -- from the seabed or finance deep-sea mining activities, and to exclude minerals obtained this way from their s

March 31, 2021

NPS returns 2.4%, slightly reduces domestic stock weighting in Jan.

South Korea‘s largest institutional investor the National Pension Service gained 2.35 percent in January from its allocation, its preliminary data showed Wednesday. The monthly disclosure also showed that the NPS, the world’s third-largest pension fund, has slightly cut its stock weighting from December 2020, indicating that the pension fund’s rebalancing effort continued against the backdrop of the record bull run in domestic bourses. Of the total 855.3 trillion won ($756.2

March 31, 2021

BlackRock to hive off retail fund business in Korea

US investment firm BlackRock said Wednesday that it aims to sell its onshore retail fund business in South Korea to a local peer, DGB Asset Management, as part of its business restructuring in the country. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Korea and the terms of the sale were not disclosed, BlackRock added. After the restructuring, BlackRock’s Korean arm will focus on serving Korean institutional investors with offshore investment solutions. The Korean arm, BlackRock

March 31, 2021