SK E&S, Plug Power form joint venture on hydrogen biz

SK E&S Co., the energy unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Wednesday it will team up with US fuel cell maker Plug Power Inc. to make a foray into the Asian hydrogen market. The two companies struck a deal to establish a 51:49 joint venture company, nine months after SK E&S and SK Inc., the group's holding firm, invested 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) to acquire a 9.9 percent stake in Plug Power.   The joint venture will build a factory to produce key component

Oct. 6, 2021

S. Korea to post more excess tax revenue this year: finance minister

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Wednesday the government is expected to log a larger-than-expected surplus in tax revenue this year as the economic recovery gathers pace. In July, the government forecast the country is expected to collect 314.3 trillion won ($264 billion) in tax revenue for this year, up 31.5 trillion won from its earlier forecast of 282.7 trillion won. But the National Assembly Budget Office forecast a larger surplus, saying that the country may record excess tax revenue of

Oct. 6, 2021

[News Focus] Korean Air’s Asiana acquisition: What is happening?

Korean Air’s plan to acquire financially-troubled rival Asiana Airlines is facing a bumpy road as the deadline for the 1.8 trillion won ($1.6 billion) deal has been pushed to the end of this year. The takeover plan was first announced in November last year, making headlines that the two South Korean full service carriers would merge, giving birth to one of the world’s ten biggest airlines. In recent months, however, slow progress for the deal -- which was initially set to be compl

Oct. 6, 2021

Additional debt control measures underway: FSC chief

The nation’s top financial regulator said Wednesday it is preparing to announce new measures to curb snowballing household debts.  “South Korea‘s growth pace of household debt has been much more rapid than other countries. The Financial Services Commission has been stepping-up efforts to prevent households’ high indebtedness from posing a major threat to the Korean economy,” said FSC Chairman Koh Seung-beom at a parliamentary audit session for the financial re

Oct. 6, 2021

Koreans dump Tesla shares, turn to US health care sector in Q3

South Korea-domiciled investors went on to sell Tesla stocks during the third quarter of this year, and instead turned to health care stocks in the United States, data showed Wednesday. This indicates that Korean investors’ enthusiasm over the growth potential of the Palo Alto, California-based electric vehicle giant since early 2020 has started to wane. Instead, they were seen betting on normalization hopes amid a fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. From July to September, Korean inv

Oct. 6, 2021

Internet banking transactions at new record high in H1

South Korea's internet banking services continued to grow in the first half, with the number of users and daily transactions rising to new highs, central bank data showed Wednesday. The number of internet banking users, including mobile banking, came to 186.5 million as of end-June, up 5.6 percent from six months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure is the simple sum of all registered users at 18 internet and mobile banking service providers in the country,

Oct. 6, 2021

7 chicken-processing firms fined W25.1b for price fixing

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has decided to impose a combined fine of 25.1 billion won ($21.2 million) on seven poultry-processing companies for colluding to fix prices of chickens. Harim Co. and six other companies colluded to fix prices and supplies of chickens to be used for "samgyetang," or Korean ginseng chicken soup, between July 2011 and July 2017, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KTFC). Their price fixing led to a hike of chicken prices dur

Oct. 6, 2021

S. Korea calls for multilateral discussion on Europe's new carbon policy

South Korea's trade ministry on Wednesday called for the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to hold discussions to prevent global environmental regulations, including Europe's new carbon policy, from hindering global free trade. The European Union announced earlier that it will adopt the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is expected to be fully implemented in 2026 following a transition period of three years. "We need to hold multilateral discussions to avoid env

Oct. 6, 2021

Exports of agricultural goods up 12.3% through Sept.

South Korea's exports of agricultural products rose 12.3 percent on-year in the first nine months of 2021 on the back of the strong popularity of "hallyu," the Korean wave of pop culture, around the globe. Outbound shipments of foodstuffs came to $6.1 billion in the January-September period, compared with $5.5 billion posted a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.   Experts said the Korean Wave generated by K-p

Oct. 6, 2021

Hanwha Techwin partners with Azena, KT for AI video solutions

Hanwha Techwin Co., a leading surveillance tech firm in South Korea, said Wednesday it will join forces with Azena, an Internet of Things company, and the country's telecommunications giant KT Corp. for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered video solutions. Under the partnership, Hanwha Techwin said its CCTV users will be able to easily add AI-powered video analytics tools to their products. Since CCTVs are built for different purpose for various locations, it is impossible to deliver all vid

Oct. 6, 2021

Imported car sales down 6.6% in Sept on part shortages

Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 6.6 percent in September from a year earlier due to fewer working days and supply glitch that stemmed from parts shortages, an industry association said Wednesday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 20,406 units last month from 21,839 a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. "The monthly sales results are attributable to fewer working days due to the Chuseok h

Oct. 6, 2021

Hyundai takes over half of FCEV market in Jan.-Aug. period

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. took over half of the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) market in the first eight months of the year, led by strong demand for its SUV model, industry data showed Wednesday. Hyundai Motor, the maker of the NEXO SUV, sold about 5,900 units in the January-August period, up 34.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from SNE Research. Hyundai accounted for 52.2 percent of the global FCEV sales over the cited period, far surpassing its Japanese

Oct. 6, 2021

LG Electronics' ADAS front camera to be used in Mercedes-Benz C-Class

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday its Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) front camera co-developed with Daimler AG will be used in Mercedes-Benz C-Class vehicles. An ADAS front camera, usually tucked between the windshield and the rearview mirror, is considered the "eye" of a smart vehicle as it collects various traffic information. LG said its camera, powered by algorithms developed by its vehicle components solutions (VS) business unit, can provide various features, inclu

Oct. 6, 2021

LS Cable set to win W200b submarine cable supply deal

LS Cable & System, South Korea's top wire and cable maker, said Wednesday it expects to win a 200 billion-won ($168 million) cable supply deal from Taiwan. LS Cable said it has been picked as the preferred bidder for the deal, and if the deal is signed, it will supply cables to a wind farm in Taiwan run by CSBC-DEME Wind Engineering by 2025. The wind farm, located in waters 50 kilometers off the west coast of Taiwan, will be able to generate up to 1 gigawatt of electricity, according to LS

Oct. 6, 2021

Quarter of S. Korean mobile users subscribed to 5G: data

Around a quarter of South Korea's mobile subscriptions were on 5G networks in August, data showed Wednesday, as new smartphone launches boosted user growth in the latest generation networks. As of end-August, there were 17.8 million 5G network users, accounting for 24.8 percent of the country's total 71.9 million mobile network subscriptions, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea has a population of 51 million, and some people have multiple mobile phones. The

Oct. 6, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday as investor sentiment was uplifted by overnight gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 11.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,973.90 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The key stock index got off to an upbeat start, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street that came after sharp losses the previous session. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.92 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq compos

Oct. 6, 2021

Seoul expresses concerns over Washington's info-sharing request on chipmakers

South Korea's trade ministry on Wednesday expressed concerns over Washington's latest request to local chipmakers to share information on their supply chains amid growing concerns over the leak of major trade secrets. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo met his US counterpart, Katherine Tai, in Paris on the sidelines of the council meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), sharing opinions on various bilateral trade issues, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry

Oct. 6, 2021

Domestic sales of Samsung's new foldable smartphones top 1m units

Domestic sales of Samsung Electronics Co.'s new foldable smartphones -- the Galaxy Z Fold3 and the Galaxy Z Flip3 -- have surpassed 1 million units, the company said Wednesday, as the tech giant strives to popularize the foldable category. The third generation of the Galaxy Z series topped the 1 million sales milestone Monday, which is just 39 days after its launch, according to Samsung.  It was the third fastest sales pace to exceed the 1 million sales mark in South Korea after the Gal

Oct. 6, 2021

Inflation growth hits over 2% for 6th straight month in Sept.

South Korea's consumer prices grew more than 2 percent for the sixth consecutive month in September, due largely to high oil prices, data showed Wednesday, indicating a build-up of inflationary pressure amid an economic recovery. The consumer prices rose 2.5 percent in September from a year earlier, slowing from a 2.6 percent on-year gain in August, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Compared with a month earlier, consumer inflation rose 0.5 percent last month. Core inflation

Oct. 6, 2021

Financial firms' overseas units shine in H1 despite pandemic

South Korean financial companies' overseas units saw their earnings jump more than 27 percent in the first half of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. According to CEO Score, 222 overseas subsidiaries of major banks and other financial institutions posted a combined net income of 411.6 billion won ($347 million) in the January-June period. It was up 27.1 percent from a year earlier and 6.1 percent from the first half of 2019, about six months before t

Oct. 6, 2021