Korea to offer 5G frequencies to non-telcos

South Korea will offer additional frequency bands for further 5G deployment and non-telecom companies are eligible to join the bid, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced Tuesday. 　 The wireless spectrums to be provided are a 600 megahertz block of a 28 Gigahertz frequency band and another 100MHz block of 4.7GHz. According to the ministry plan, the government will divide the 28GHz band into 12 blocks, and the 4.7GHz band into 10 blocks for the frequency rollout and companies or institution

June 29, 2021

Seoul stocks down for 2nd day amid spreading virus woes

South Korean stocks retreated for the second straight session Tuesday as concerns of new coronavirus variants weakened investors' appetite for risky assets. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 15.21 points, or 0.46 percent, to close at 3,286.68 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.2 billion shares worth some 14.2 trillion won (US$12.6 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 549 to 303. Foreigners sold a net 550 b

June 29, 2021

LGES to source 50,000 tons of lithium from Australian mineral company

The world’s leading lithium-ion battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution on Tuesday signed a non-binding agreement with Australian mineral firm Infinity Lithium to source lithium hydroxide, a key material for high-nickel electric vehicle batteries. Under the agreement, LGES gains priority access to 10,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide each year from Infinity’s San Jose lithium project in Spain for an initial five years. LGES also has the option to offtake additional volumes for

June 29, 2021

Korean Air named ‘2021 Airline of the Year’ by Air Transport World

South Korea’s national flag carrier Korean Air has been named the airline of the year by aviation publication Air Transport World, the company said Tuesday. The Seoul-based airline was chosen by an independent board of ATW and Aviation Week Networks editors and analysts for its leadership and ability to stay profitable throughout last year despite the industry’s unprecedented crisis during the pandemic, it said. A “remarkable” relationship with employees that allowed

June 29, 2021

Expert says US likely to renegotiate terms if it rejoins CPTPP

The United States will not accept the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership as it is and will try to renegotiate the terms of the trade pact if it decides to rejoin, an international trade expert told a forum in Seoul on Thursday. Simon Lester, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Washington-based CATO Institute, said traditional supporters of the Democratic Party in the US are “generally opposed to trade liberalization,”

June 29, 2021

South Korea unveils new W33tr COVID extra budget

South Korea plans to allocate 33 trillion won ($29.2 billion) for its second round of COVID-19 supplementary budget this year, the ruling party and the government said Tuesday, amid growing concerns over the nation’s fast-growing national debt.  Since last year, the country has drawn up five rounds of COVID-19 extra budgets amounting to 82 trillion won with the latest and sixth addition pushing the number over the 100 trillion won-mark.  Ultimately, the total second extra budge

June 29, 2021

Gap between highest and lowest-priced apartments hits record high

Housing polarization is rapidly deepening in South Korea, with the gap between the highest- and lowest-priced apartments widening to its greatest level on record in June, data showed Tuesday.  According to data from KB Kookmin Bank’s real estate services platform Liiv On, apartment prices in the top 20 percent range reached an average of 1.1 billion won ($978,000) this month, gaining nearly 200 million won on-year. This marked the highest number since the lender started to compile

June 29, 2021

Kakao Pay’s Kospi debut likely to come in August: watchers

Kakao Pay, the payment services unit of mobile giant Kakao, could make its market debut in August, the same month its sister company KakaoBank goes public, industry watchers suggested Tuesday. The company received approval on its application for a preliminary qualification examination for listing from the Korea Exchange on Monday, also the same day KakaoBank, a banking arm of the messenger giant, made its August IPO official. After discussing the timeline with its lead underwriters Samsung Sec

June 29, 2021

Hybe shares plunge almost 8% after a block deal

Shares of Hybe, the South Korean entertainment agency behind the hugely popular boy band BTS, plummeted more than 7 percent on Tuesday after a major investor, STIC Investment, unloaded its holdings via a block deal. Before closing down 7.37 percent to 289,000 won ($256), Hybe’s shares dropped by as much as 8.17 percent to 286,500 won on Tuesday. South Korea’s leading private equity fund STIC Investment sold 2.86 million shares, or 7.57 percent of the total shares in Hybe, a regu

June 29, 2021

Banks' lending rates inch down in May

South Korean banks' lending rates edged down in May amid a slight decline in deposit rates, central bank data showed Tuesday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.72 percent in May, down 0.02 percentage point from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK cut the key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in May last year after delivering an emergency rate cut of half a percentage point in March to cushion the impact

June 29, 2021

Self-employed's debts up 3.1% in 2019

The self-employed's debts grew 3.1 percent in 2019 from a year earlier as their income declined amid an economic slowdown, data showed Tuesday. Financial institutions' loans extended to the self-employed averaged 172 million won (US$151,800) as of end-2019, compared with 167 million won the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Self-employed people took out more loans to cover rising costs as they tackled a fall in sales amid an extended economic slowdown. Since last yea

June 29, 2021

Samsung Heavy to lease drill ship to Italy's Saipem

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. has signed a deal to lease its drill ship to Italian oilfield services company Saipem for two years, the shipbuilder said Tuesday. The deal to be effective from November 2021 to August 2023 has an option for Saipem to purchase the leased drill ship, it added. But the company did not reveal the value of the deal. The drill ship is one of two drill ships that Swiss-based offshore driller Transocean Ltd. relinquished without specifying the reason in September 2019.

June 29, 2021

LG's OLED TVs support Dolby Vision Gaming at 4K, 120Hz

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday its OLED TVs now support an advanced video processing technology for gamers at 4K resolution with 120Hz refresh rate as the South Korean tech giant tries to beef up its presence in the gaming community. Through a software update, LG said its 2021 OLED TV models, including the G1 and C1, are compatible with Dolby Vision Gaming at 4K, 120Hz, becoming the industry's first TV products to support the solution in such picture settings. Previously, LG's TV supported

June 29, 2021

S. Korea facing 216 trade barriers around globe: data

South Korea is currently facing 216 trade barriers from 28 countries, data showed Tuesday, amid the looming protectionism around the globe. The figure includes 11 additional trade barriers imposed against South Korea in the first half of 2021, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Of the additional regulations, anti-dumping tariffs accounted for eight and safeguard measures took up three. The steel and metal sectors were among major victims, taking up 1

June 29, 2021

Samsung SDS signs partnership with US software firm ServiceNow

Samsung SDS Co., an IT service unit of Samsung Group, on Tuesday said it has signed a partnership with US-based software firm ServiceNow Inc. to expand cloud-based businesses. Under the deal with ServiceNow, Samsung SDS will utilize its IT service management solutions to help enterprise customers' digital transformation efforts. The two also agreed to join forces to develop technologies in the field of artificial intelligence and natural language understanding to seek growth opportunities.

June 29, 2021

Kia to vaccinate its workers from late July

Kia Corp., South Korea's No. 2 automaker, will begin an in-house COVID-19 vaccination program for its workers next month as part of antivirus measures for its factories, company officials said Tuesday. Kia plans to start inoculating employees with Moderna shots at in-house clinics of its plants in Gwangmyeong, Hwaseong and Jeonju on July 30, a company spokesperson said. The automaker will accept reservations from its 23,000 employees working at production lines, the spokesperson said. Kia

June 29, 2021

SK Telecom teams up with Genesys to launch AI call centers

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier, said Tuesday it has teamed up with US call center technology company Genesys to launch a contact center service powered by artificial intelligence (AI). AI call centers have recently risen in popularity as they can reduce tasks handled by traditional call center agents by using speech recognition and natural language processing technology to respond to simple and repetitive user queries. SK Telecom said it has partnered with Genesys, which

June 29, 2021

Samsung unveils new smartwatch interface

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday unveiled its new smartwatch interface that will run on the upcoming unified wearable operating system (OS) with Google as the South Korean tech giant eyes to expand its presence in the wearable device market. Samsung introduced One UI Watch at its virtual session of this year's Mobile World Congress, saying the new interface aims to deliver a more connected experience between the Galaxy Watch and smartphones. One UI Watch will be available for new OS jointl

June 29, 2021

Airlines urge govt. to expand travel bubble to individual tourists

South Korean airlines called on the government Tuesday to implement a travel bubble as early as possible and to expand it to individual overseas tourists. The request was made at a meeting between Vice Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Kim Jeong-base and tourism industry people, which was organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A travel bubble refers to a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. South

June 29, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on virus concerns

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday as concerns of new coronavirus variants weakened investors' appetite for risky assets. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 7.55 points, or 0.23 percent, to trade at 3,294.34 points as of 9:15 a.m. The KOSPI got off to a muted start, taking a cue from new travel bans against the new COVID-19 variants in many parts of the world. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics retreated 0.49 percent, while No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix added 0

June 29, 2021