Korea Public Health Association teams up with Febreze to launch hygiene campaign

The Korea Public Health Association has teamed up with P&G Korea’s Febreze to launch a public hygiene campaign to keep homes clean. The new campaign is designed to raise awareness of what has been dubbed the “new normal” lifestyle that has emerged in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, putting an emphasis on hygiene at home, the company said. The four-step guidelines touch on sterilization, disinfection, ventilation and humidity and also lays out ways to disinfect item

Jan. 28, 2021

Four-way partnership forged for flying cars

Korea Airports Corp., Hanwha Systems, SK Telecom and the Korea Transport Institute have formed a four-way partnership to accelerate the commercialization of flying cars, or urban air mobility vehicles. Leaders from each party signed a memorandum of understanding at KAC’s headquarters in western Seoul on Wednesday as part of efforts to form a “dream team” with the goal of trialing commercial air taxis by 2025, the corporation announced on Thursday. The move will see KAC build

Jan. 28, 2021

Samsung, Deutsche Telekom complete 5G standalone trial in Czech Republic

Samsung Electronics Co. has successfully completed its first 5G standalone (SA) trial with Deutsche Telekom AG, according to the company, as the South Korean tech giant tries to expand its presence in the European 5G telecommunications market. Samsung and Deutsche Telekom, Europe's leading telecom service operator, conducted their first 5G SA trial in Pilsen, the Czech Republic, verifying performance of 5G SA multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technologies, Samsung said late

Jan. 28, 2021

Samsung relegated to 2nd spot in Q4 smartphone market: report

Samsung Electronics Co. dropped to the second spot in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2020, a report showed Thursday, as Apple Inc. outshined other companies on the back of its new iPhone 12 series. Samsung shipped 73.9 million smartphones in the October-December period, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier, for a market share of 19.2 percent, according to market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC). Apple was the top performer in the fourth quarter after shipping 90.1

Jan. 28, 2021

LS Electric 2020 net profit down 17% to W85.5b

LS Electric Co. on Thursday reported its 2020 net profit of 85.5 billion won ($76.6 million), down 17 percent from a year earlier. Operating income for the year was 133.7 billion won, down 20.7 percent on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Annual revenue rose 2.4 percent to 2.4 trillion won. (Yonhap)

Jan. 28, 2021

LS Electric Q4 net income up 64.8% to W21.2b

LS Electric Co. on Thursday reported its fourth-quarter net profit of 21.2 billion won ($19 million), up 64.8 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 32.6 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 43.2 billion won a year ago. Revenue fell 12.7 percent to 610.2 billion won. The operating profit was 18.0 percent lower than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency

Jan. 28, 2021

S. Korea's daily FX turnover dips 5% last year amid won's gain

The daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea fell 5.3 percent on-year in 2020 as the local currency rose against the US dollar, central bank data showed Thursday. The daily FX turnover came to an average $52.8 billion last year, down $2.93 billion from the previous year, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK said the drop in the daily FX turnover came as the won's gain reduced demand to hedge risks with FX derivative trading. The Korean currency apprecia

Jan. 28, 2021

FSC recommends banks to keep dividends below 20% of earnings

South Korea’s top financial regulator said Thursday it has decided to advise major banks to maintain their dividend payouts below 20 percent of net income during the first half of this year in response to the prolonged economic fallout of COVID-19.  Under the latest guidance by the Financial Services Commission, local lenders are expected to cut payments to shareholders by about 5 to 7 percentage points. Last year, the country’s four major banking groups -- KB Financial, Shinha

Jan. 28, 2021

Dutch investor NNIP says Korean bonds have less upside potential than EM peers

Netherlands-based investor NN Investment Partners said Thursday the search for yield will make emerging markets the most attractive destination for bond investors, but that South Korea was not likely to be their first choice. “Although Korea is part of the emerging market universe in indices, it is much closer to the developed than many other emerging market universe,” Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, chief investment officer of NNIP, said in a teleconference with Korean reporters. &

Jan. 28, 2021

S. Korea's trade terms rise for 9th straight month in Dec.

South Korea's terms of trade rose for the ninth consecutive month in December as export prices increased at a faster pace than import prices, central bank data showed Thursday. The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods -- a gauge of trade terms -- increased 7.2 percent last month from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the ninth straight month of an on-year rise since April, when the trade terms logged the first on-year hike in over two

Jan. 28, 2021

Honda Korea bets on hybrid models in S. Korea

Honda Korea Co., the South Korean unit of Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co., said Thursday it will focus on reviving lackluster sales this year by launching new gasoline hybrid models amid the prolonged coronavirus pandemic. Honda Korea has launched the new all-wheel CR-V hybrid SUV and the upgraded Accord hybrid sedan to regain a share in the Korean market, where its sales plunged 65 percent to 3,056 vehicles last year from 8,760 a year earlier. "We are targeting to sell 3,000 hybrid mod

Jan. 28, 2021

S. Korea's shipping industry expected to enjoy strong sales in 2021

South Korea's oceans ministry said Thursday the country's shipping segment is expected to recover its sales to the levels before the industrywide slump a few years ago. The combined sales of the local shipping industry could reach 40 trillion won ($36.2 billion) this year, compared with 36 trillion won tallied the previous year, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Sales of the country's shipping industry came to 39 trillion won in 2015, but they sharply lost ground in the follow

Jan. 28, 2021

S. Koreans' consumption of rice hits all-time low in 2020

South Koreans' consumption of rice hit a record low in 2020, data showed Thursday, due mainly to changes in diet and eating habits. The average South Korean consumed 57.7 kilograms of rice in 2020, down 2.5 percent or 1.5 kilograms from the previous year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said, citing the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Rice is a key staple food for Koreans, but its consumption has been on a steady decline since 1980, when per capita average annual rice co

Jan. 28, 2021

Samsung further skewed toward M&A push, more investments

Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday said it aims to clinch merger and acquisition (M&A) deals and expand investments in the upcoming years as the South Korean tech giant eyes to fend off challenges from its rivals amid global uncertainties In its conference call, Samsung's chief finance officer Choi Yoon-ho said the company will actively use its cash to expand facility investments and pursue M&A deals in a bid to solidify its market-leading position and beef up its future growth. "

Jan. 28, 2021

S. Korea to build new resource exploration ship by 2024

South Korea said Thursday it has launched a project to build a new ship equipped with the latest devices to explore deep-sea resources. Under the project, the country will spend 190 billion won ($172 million) to build the 6,000-ton vessel, named the Tamhae 3, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The project first kicked off in 2018. The envisioned ship, which is to be constructed by Hanjin Heavy Industries Co. in cooperation with the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Minera

Jan. 28, 2021

Retail sales up 5.5% in 2020 on online gains amid pandemic

Retail sales in South Korea rose 5.5 percent on-year in 2020 due to strong gains from the online segment in sync with the social distancing policy amid the unprecedented virus pandemic. The combined sales of local online shops shot up 18.4 percent in 2020 from the previous year, while those of offline stores fell 3.6 percent, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Among offline stores, convenience stores were the sole winners, with their sales advancing 2

Jan. 28, 2021

SsangYong Motor says deal with potential buyer is 'still under way'

SsangYong Motor Co., the South Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said Thursday that its Indian parent company is still in talks to sell its controlling stake, denying media reports that the deal has fallen through. SsangYong Motor made the statement in response to media reports that Mahindra and HAAH Automotive Holdings, Inc., a California company that imports vehicles for the US market, have failed to reach a compromise for the deal and notified SsangYong's main cred

Jan. 28, 2021

KT to launch media production studio

KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Thursday it will launch a content production company to serve as the company's overarching control tower for its growing media businesses. The mobile carrier said KT Studio Genie will oversee planning and distribution of media content developed by its range of media services, from its video streaming platform Seezn to internet protocol Olleh TV. KT added that it also plans to develop original content based on works from its webcomic unit St

Jan. 28, 2021

[Graphic News] S. Korea’s data industry thrives amid pandemic

　South Korea’s data industry expanded more than 14 percent in 2020 from a year earlier to exceed the 19 trillion-won level, a survey showed. 　The local market for data stood at 19.3 trillion won ($17.4 billion) last year, up 14.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the survey by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Data Agency. 　Last year’s growth rate was much higher than the 8.3 percent on-year increase posted a year earlier. 　Data sales and provision accounte

Jan. 28, 2021

Samsung to pay record dividends this year, more through 2023

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it will pay record dividends to shareholders later this year and more through 2023 to improve its shareholder value, a move that is also seen to smooth out leadership succession for Samsung Group heirs. Samsung will pay a total of a record 13.12 trillion won ($11.8 billion) in dividends to shareholders for the 2020 fiscal year in April, the tech giant said. "The board approved a one-time special cash dividend of 10.7 trillion won," the company sa

Jan. 28, 2021