CJ Olive Young bets big on North America for global expansion

Korea’s top health and beauty retailer CJ Olive Young said Wednesday it aims to land a million customers overseas with the US and Canada being the target markets.  The firm said its online platform Olive Young Global, launched in 2019, now ships Korean beauty products to some 150 countries around the world. Over the past six months alone, sales from the platform posted an almost 20-fold surge, the firm said without offering specific figures. Membership also soared to some 300,000 use

Jan. 12, 2022

510,000 jobs disappeared in food-lodging, wholesale-retail since COVID-19

SEJONG -- The number of employed people increased the most in seven years in 2021 on the back of the base effect after the coronavirus pandemic dealt a severe blow to the hiring market in 2020, state data showed Wednesday. But the number of jobs in sectors such as wholesale-retail and food service-lodging continued to decline last year, following the previous year. About 516,000 jobs disappeared in these four sectors during the period of 2020-2021. According to Statistics Korea, the number of

Jan. 12, 2022

Posco succeeds in producing neon gas for chips

South Korea’s top steel maker Posco said Wednesday that it has succeeded in producing neon, a rare gas mainly used for making chips, at its Gwangyang steel mill, becoming the first Korean firm to do so. “It is very meaningful to achieve the complete localization of neon, which was a long-cherished task in the industrial gas market, in cooperation with TEMC, a small but strong Korean company,” Vice President Yoo Byung-ok said during the ceremony. “Through ESG business

Jan. 12, 2022

Naver, Kakao share dip shocks young investors

For Lim Ji-soo, a 30-year-old retail investor living in Seoul, Kakao and Naver shares account for 80 percent of her spare money and most of her stock portfolio. “I wish I’d found a more appropriate timing to purchase the stocks – I didn’t know they’d fall like this,” she said Wednesday. Lim is one of the growing number of “young Korean investors” in their 20s and 30s who believe that saving monthly wages is no longer the answer to their personal

Jan. 12, 2022

Seoul stocks jump 1.5% after Fed chief's inflation comments

South Korean stocks closed sharply higher Wednesday, as the US Fed chief's comments about inflation were largely within market expectations. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) gained 4.51 points, or 1.54 percent, to close at 2,972.48 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 506 million shares worth some 10.8 trillion won ($9.1 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 730 to 140. Institutions bought a net 607 billion won and

Jan. 12, 2022

[Battery+] China’s cut on EV subsidies a boon for Korean battery makers

As China plans to phase out subsidies for electric vehicles by 30 percent by the end of 2022 and completely eliminate them starting 2023, South Korean battery trio -- LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On -- are bracing for potential impact. According to industry sources Wednesday, China’s U-turn on EV subsidies indicates its confidence about the local EV market‘s ability to survive without state support and its determination to sort out low-quality EV battery manufacturers.

Jan. 12, 2022

Samsung dispatches flights to bring back COVID-positive employees from CES

Samsung Electronics dispatched chartered flights to Las Vegas to bring home some 20 staff members and executives who tested positive for COVID-19 at the CES 2022 trade show, according to industry sources Wednesday. The majority of the infected Samsung officials returned to South Korea late Tuesday night, while the remaining officials arrived around noon on Wednesday. Most of the officials reported minor or no symptoms. After arrival, they were transferred to a quarantine facility for medical

Jan. 12, 2022

Posco logs record high earnings in 2021 on robust demand, high prices

Posco, South Korea's top steelmaker, said Wednesday that it logged its largest earnings ever last year on the back of strong demand for key products and high prices. Its operating income stood at 9.2 trillion won ($7.73 billion) last year on a consolidated basis, compared with an operating profit of 2.4 trillion won a year earlier, the company said. Sales amounted to 76.4 trillion won, up 32.1 percent from a year earlier, it added. Posco showed a stellar performance in the second and third qu

Jan. 12, 2022

EU set to veto merger of S. Korean shipbuilders: sources

European Union regulators are set to veto Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.'s proposed acquisition of its smaller rival Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., citing monopoly issues, industry sources said Wednesday. Within this week, the EU's antitrust regulator will likely announce its decision to block the merger of the South Korean shipbuilders, arguing the tie-up could create a monopoly in the LNG ship market amid rising energy prices, a person familiar with the matter told Yonhap New

Jan. 12, 2022

ABL Bio signs $1.06b deal with Sanofi for Parkinson’s disease treatment

ABL Bio has signed a contract worth up to $1.06 billion (1.27 trillion won) with French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi to co-develop ABL301, an antibody treatment candidate for degenerative brain diseases including Parkinson’s disease, the Korean biotech company said Wednesday. ABL Bio will receive $75 million in down payments, according to the deal. The Korean biotech company will also be able to rake in up to $985 million depending on the success of clinical trials, regulatory approval and

Jan. 12, 2022

Naver invests in e-commerce data startup

Naver D2 Startup Factory has made a follow-on investment in local e-commerce data startup Datarize, the IT giant said Wednesday. Stonebridge Ventures led the series A funding of Datarize with co-investments from Weventures, Korea Development Bank and Mirae Asset Venture Investment. The total funding amounted to 11.5 billion won ($9.6 million). Naver D2 Startup Factory had previously taken part in the seed investment of Datarize in 2020. Datarize developed an all-in-one growth solution for onl

Jan. 12, 2022

Pernod Ricard Korea launches Time Well Spent campaign to solidify local presence

Pernod Ricard Korea’s new “Time Well Spent” campaign will solidify its position as a market leader in the local whiskey market, which is constantly expanding, the liquor firm said Wednesday.  According to Pernod Ricard Korea’s marketing director Kim Kyung-yeon, the domestic imported whiskey market made 58 percent growth compared to 2019. “With increased public interest in whiskey, high-end whiskey categories and the malt whiskey saw significant growth -&ndash

Jan. 12, 2022

Samsung's chip biz faces minimal impact from Xi'an lockdown: analysts

The prolonged lockdown in the Chinese city of Xi'an will have minimal impact on the performance of Samsung Electronics Co., which has a chip fabrication complex there, analysts said Wednesday. Samsung, the world's largest memory chip maker, temporarily adjusted operations at its NAND flash chips manufacturing base in the city late last month, following the city's draconian restrictions imposed on Dec. 22, banning its 13 million citizens from venturing out and doing nonessential activities, to s

Jan. 12, 2022

Market cap of top 100 firms gains 10.8% over past year

South Korea's top 100 companies have seen their total market capitalization swell nearly 11 percent over the past one-year period, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The combined market value of those leading firms came to 2,128 trillion won ($1.78 trillion) as of Jan. 3 this year, up 10.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Korea CXO Institute. The number of listed firms with a market cap of 1 trillion won or more stood at 288, up 54 from a year earlier. Global tech behemoth Samsung E

Jan. 12, 2022

LG supplies in-car infotainment system to Mercedes-AMG EQS

LG Electronics said Wednesday it has supplied its premium in-car infotainment system to be featured in the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS full-electric luxury sedan. LG’s system combines three displays – instrument cluster display, central information display and co-driver display – into a single, panoramic screen that stretches across the entire width of the car’s dashboard. Thanks to the use of a plastic organic light-emitting diode display, the South Korean tech giant said,

Jan. 12, 2022

Money supply up 1.1% in Nov. amid increased savings

South Korea's money supply expanded in November as savings increased due in part to rising interest rates, central bank data showed Wednesday. The country's M2, a key gauge of the money supply, stood at 3,589.1 trillion won ($3.01 trillion) on average in November, up 1.1 percent, or 39.4 trillion won, from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The growth rate was the same as what was reported in October. Compared with a year earlier, the money supply

Jan. 12, 2022

Coupang launches Japan’s Nitori furniture in Korea

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang said Wednesday it has exclusively launched the product lines of Nitori, Japan’s largest furniture and household goods brand. According to the company, Coupang will directly import Nitori products so that customers in Korea can conveniently purchase the brand’s items. Celebrating the launch, Coupang presents a limited-time offer from Wednesday to Friday. Any Coupang customer can receive four types of discount coupons -- discounts of 3,000 won ($

Jan. 12, 2022

Hyundai Development apologizes over construction accident

GWANGJU -- The chief of Hyundai Development Co. apologized Wednesday over the collapse of a facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction, which has left six workers still missing. The exterior wall of the apartment building in the southwestern city of Gwangju crumbled down at around 3:46 p.m. Tuesday, with at least one person injured and about 10 vehicles buried under the rubble. A total of 394 people were working at the scene of the accident, but six of them were unaccounted fo

Jan. 12, 2022

Daewoo E&C names insider as new CEO

Daewoo Engineering & Construction on Wednesday named Baek Jung-wan, the current head of the constructor’s housing division, as its new CEO whose appointment will be finalized in an upcoming board meeting once the planned acquisition by the Jungheung Group completes next month.  Baek, 59, a career insider, joined Daewoo E&C in 1985. He has worked as an onsite leader for Daewoo’s major apartment constructions before becoming an executive director at the company’s ho

Jan. 12, 2022

S. Korea's ICT exports hit record high of $227b in 2021

South Korea's output in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry rose 24 percent in 2021 from a year earlier to reach an all-time high, data showed Wednesday. The record-high output of $227.6 billion comes on the back of solid global demand for chips, displays and rechargeable batteries, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. Imports of such goods rose 19.9 percent on-year to $135 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $92.6 billion last year.

Jan. 12, 2022