FTC executive elected as OECD committee’s bureau member

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday that its secretary general Shin Bong-sam has been elected as a bureau member of the OECD’s Competition Committee. According to OECD, major objective of OECD Competition Committee is to inform and encourage senior regulators and antitrust enforcers to act consistently on enforcement of competition laws.  The committee is comprised of representatives from 16 member countries which lead the enforcement of competition laws. A tot

Dec. 1, 2021

Samsung Heavy succeeds in reselling drill ship for $245m

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has signed a $245 million deal with a European company to sell its drill ship it has failed to deliver due to a botched deal. "The deal will help improve our financial health along with our recent sale of new shares," Samsung Heavy said in an emailed statement. The drill ship sold to the European company is one of two drill ships that Swiss-based offshore driller Transocean Ltd. relinquished without specifying a reason in September 2019.

Dec. 1, 2021

S. Korean manufacturing index above par for 14th month in Nov.: IHS Markit

South Korea's manufacturing activity remained in the expansionary phase for 14 months running in November on brisk exports, a global market researcher said Wednesday. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) of the country's manufacturing sector came to 50.9 last month, up 0.7 point from the previous month, according to a survey by IHS Markit. Since October 2020, South Korea's PMI, a key measure of factory activity in a country, has been above the 50-point mark that separates contraction from expa

Dec. 1, 2021

WSTS halves growth prediction for memory chip market next year

A semiconductor industry tracker on Wednesday cut in half its growth projection of the global memory chip market next year. World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), a nonprofit organization of chipmakers, forecast the memory market to expand 8.5 percent year-on-year to $171.6 billion next year, down from a growth rate of 18.4 percent with $190.7 billion it forecast in its August report. While the agency did not elaborate, falling DRAM prices and an expected slowdown in memory demand are be

Dec. 1, 2021

S. Korea's 5G users top 19m in October: data

The number of smartphone users on 5G mobile networks had topped 19 million as of October, data showed Wednesday, as new smartphone launches boosted user growth in the latest generation networks. The total number of 5G users reached 19.38 million in October, accounting for around 27 percent of the total 72.15 million mobile subscriptions in the country, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea, which has a population of 52 million, first commercialized 5G networks

Dec. 1, 2021

Seoul stocks open slightly higher on tech, bio reboun

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday on advances in tech and bio shares despite overnight falls on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) inched up 3.57 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,842.58 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1.86 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite declined 1.55 percent amid growing concerns about the omicron coronavirus variant and accelerating inflation in the world's largest eco

Dec. 1, 2021

S. Korea's exports hit fresh monthly high in Nov. on robust global demand for chips

South Korea's exports spiked 32.1 percent on-year to reach an all-time monthly high in November on the back of strong global demand for chips and petro products, data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments came to $60.44 billion, compared with $45.75 billion from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It marked the highest monthly figure since the country began compiling the data in 1956, and it is the first time that the monthly tally surpa

Dec. 1, 2021

Disney+'s weekly users hit 1m in S. Korea

The number of weekly users on Disney+, the flagship streaming service of US media giant Walt Disney Co., topped 1 million in less than a month since its launch here, a market research firm said Wednesday. The streaming service's weekly users in South Korea reached 1.01 million from Nov. 15 to 21, becoming the fifth most used over-the-top (OTT) media service, according to data from market tracker Nielsen KoreanClick. Netflix ranked first with 4.71 million users, followed by homegrown players Wa

Dec. 1, 2021

Foreign IBs cuts next year's Kospi targets amid rising volatility

Two major foreign investment banks (IBs) have revised down their targets of South Korea's key stock index for 2022 amid rising market volatility following the discovery of the omicron coronavirus variant, industry sources said Wednesday. In a recent report on South Korea, Goldman Sachs has cut its 2022 target of the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) to 3,350 from an earlier estimate of 3,700. Goldman Sachs said its downgrade reflects the characteristic of the South Korean sto

Dec. 1, 2021

Sovereign fund head touts ESG, impact investment

ESG and impact investment will offer a new way for investors to make financial returns while leaving a positive, social and environmental impact, and South Korea hopes to spread the practice of “responsible investment,” Korea Investment Corporation CEO Jin Seoung-ho said Tuesday. The chief of the country’s sovereign wealth fund said ESG investment, which looks at environmental, social and governance factors, and impact investment, which aims to make money and measureable socia

Nov. 30, 2021

Renault 5 EV wins Future Mobility of the Year award

Renault Samsung’s Renault 5 EV concept car has received this year’s Future Mobility of the Year award, the automaker said Tuesday.  The third annual award was set up by KAIST’s Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation and evaluated by global automotive journalists. Of 46 new concept cars unveiled from 2020 through the first quarter of 2021, Renault’s concept car has been picked based on the mobility tech and innovative service that can be useful for fu

Nov. 30, 2021

Household debt poses limited risks to S. Korean economy: finance minister

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Tuesday the country's snowballing household debt is posing limited risks to the economy, given borrowers' capability to repay debt and banks' financial health. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki made the remarks during his meeting with the delegation of S&P Global Ratings, led by Kim Eng Tan, senior director of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings at the global credit appraiser. The delegation kicked off its annual consultations with the Korean government Mo

Nov. 30, 2021

Industrial output posts highest negative growth in 18 months

SEJONG -- South Korea’s industrial output and facilities investment declined on-month, though the two sectors also recorded positive growth on-year, reflecting economic uncertainty under constant pressure of the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The industrial output decreased by 1.9 percent in October from a month earlier, which marked the highest negative growth since it posted minus 2 percent in April 2020. Production in the manufacturing segment, including automobiles and metals, decrea

Nov. 30, 2021

Race for EV charging stations intensifies for market dominance

Amid the global transition to electric vehicles, EV makers are moving fast to set up charging infrastructure in Korea not only to increase their sales but to gain dominance in a country where a no clear market leader has surfaced yet. For automakers, building recharging points, which are still in the nascent stage here in terms of both numbers and maintenance, has become pivotal to overcome EVs’ general and biggest weakness –- a short driving range.  According to the governmen

Nov. 30, 2021

Officials tout Laos as hidden gem for land developers

Laos is fast emerging as a land of opportunity for land developers, ahead of a highly anticipated launch of a new high-speed train connecting the Southeast Asian country with China next month. The Thatluang Lake Special Economic Zone, the only economic zone in the capital city of Vientiane, in particular, is expected to benefit, providing a boost for the local economy and luring foreign investors. Korean real estate investment firm D&C Mineun held a weeklong promotional seminar on Nov.

Nov. 30, 2021

Seoul stocks dip to yearly low amid new COVID-19 variant scare

South Korean stocks tumbled to a 52-week low Tuesday as concerns over the potential impact of the omicron coronavirus variant continued to weigh on investor sentiment. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plummeted 70.31 points, or 2.42 percent, to close at 2,839.01 points. Trading volume was high at about 968 million shares worth some 19.2 trillion won ($16.2 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 874 to 48. Foreigners sold a

Nov. 30, 2021

Hyundai E&C to sell new apartments in Pyeongtaek

Hyundai Engineering & Construction said it will begin sales of 698 new apartments later this month in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The apartments belong to a new estate named Hillstate Pyeongtaek The First, which will consist of a total of 1,107 homes between 59 to 84 square meters in size, and will mark the first sale of new homes in Seojeong-dong, Pyeongtaek in 14 years. Commercial areas around Songtan metro station and Seojeong-dong with banks, hospitals and the Songtan bra

Nov. 30, 2021

[Interactive] S. Korea top Asian country in global innovation rankings

South Korea has clinched the top spot in Asia in a United Nations agency’s global innovation rankings, coming in fifth globally. In the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2021, Korea was ahead of Singapore, Japan and China. It was behind Switzerland, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, was in 10th place last year. (Yonhap) By Nam Kyung-don

Nov. 30, 2021

Dunamu to launch video chat metaverse platform

Dunamu, the operator of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, said Tuesday that it has launched the beta version of its video chat metaverse platform, pushing the boundary between the real world and virtual reality. Metaverse refers to virtual communities that let users interact in real time. On 2ndblock, the metaverse platform, a video chat window automatically pops up when users’ avatars are close by, and users can see each other’s faces through webcams. They can also actively communic

Nov. 30, 2021

Shinhan completes review of stablecoin cross-border transfer technology

South Korea’s Shinhan Bank said Tuesday it has completed its review of its cross-border wiring and transfer technology for stablecoins, but remained cautious on its actual adoption. Stablecoins are a form of cryptocurrency designed to have a stable value tied to traditional government-backed currencies, or to a commodity such as gold, to dodge the volatilities that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have. “With the stablecoin transactions growing overseas, including JP Morgan&rsqu

Nov. 30, 2021