Samsung Electronics plans to borrow 20 trillion won ($15.78 billion) from its display unit to secure working capital as the tech giant seeks to maintain a similar level of investment as last year, despite the sharp industry downturn to continue into the year. In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Samsung said it will be borrowing funds from Samsung Display at an interest rate of 4.6 percent, with the loan to mature on Aug. 17, 2025. Samsung Display, an affiliate in which Samsung Electronics holds 8

Industry Feb. 15, 2023

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is unlikely to seek board membership at the company, as it was not included in the list of agenda items to be discussed in the upcoming general shareholders meeting on March 15. Samsung held a board of directors meeting on Tuesday to fix the date of this year’s general gathering and three topics to be discussed there, the company said in a press release. The three agendas are approving of the company's financial statement, appointment of Vice

Industry Feb. 14, 2023

SK Supex, SK Group’s top decision-making council, said Tuesday that the group selected two environment-related social enterprises, Netspa and En2core Technology, as the beneficiaries of its venture fostering program, Impact Union, and had granted 100 million won to each of the companies. Running the project aimed at fostering social enterprises since 2020, the nation’s second-largest conglomerate assessed 25 social enterprises recommended by investors and partner business accelerat

Industry Feb. 14, 2023

Samsung Electronics, the largest smartphone maker in the world by shipment, vowed Monday to replace all plastics used in its Galaxy smartphones to recycled materials by 2050, highlighting its latest Galaxy S series, which has been made with the highest number of recyclables to date. At the same time, the company said it will bear the cost of converting the recycled materials using special technologies and that it will not transfer the cost burden to consumers. “Samsung Electronics is conti

Technology Feb. 13, 2023

With China as its biggest trade partner, South Korea will likely see its economy growth aided by the neighboring country’s reopening of its borders in an easing of the yearslong COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, a Korean trade lobby group said Sunday. In a report, the Korea International Trade Association said China’s reopening would add 0.16 percentage point to South Korea’s growth rate of 1.6 to 1.7 percent predicted for this year, with the margin making up 10 percent of the

Industry Feb. 12, 2023

A year after the country’s introduction of a workplace safety law, more companies have launched teams overseeing safety and gained a better understanding of the controversial act, a report said on Thursday. The latest report by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed that the number of companies who have launched a team to specifically handle workplace safety and health almost doubled in the past year. The latest survey was conducted in January and the previous one was carried

Industry Feb. 9, 2023

While the global chip industry is struggling to make ends meet amid sluggish demand and price falls, Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, said it will keep spending at a similar level to last year. Adding to that is that the tech giant has no plans to seek an "artificial cut" in production, bucking the trend of smaller rivals that have announced a reduction both in production and spending this year to manage their growing inventories. Samsung’s comment

Industry Feb. 8, 2023

LG Group said Monday it has kicked off the construction to renovate the lower floors of its symbolic LG Twin Towers, a landmark in Yeouido, western Seoul, where its major affiliates including LG Electronics are headquartered. Since the buildings were established in 1987, it is the second time the nation's fourth-largest conglomerate carries out a renovation of the two skyscrapers. It renovated the working spaces in the upper level floors in 2009, and it is the it is the first time the group

Industry Feb. 6, 2023

South Korean internet giant Naver said Friday it will launch its own generative pretrained transformer, or GPT, for search functions by the end of June, as OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has been taking the tech world by storm. “We are gearing up to handle new search trends, such as the generative AI that is gaining a lot of attention now. And we plan to introduce our own upgraded version of SearchGPT in the first half of this year,” Chief Executive Officer Cho

Industry Feb. 3, 2023

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker by shipments, is bolstering ties with global tech giants Qualcomm and Google to build the next-generation extended reality ecosystem, as its archrival Apple, which tops in revenue, is expected to launch a mixed reality headset this year. At the annual unpacking event showcasing the new Galaxy S23 smartphone series, Roh Tae-moon, Samsung Electronics' president and head of mobile experience, appeared together with Qualcomm Presid

Industry Feb. 2, 2023

South Korean memory chipmaker SK hynix reiterated Wednesday its plan to halve investment and reduce production of low-profit products this year, as the company witnessed a sharp drop in profit amid severe slump in the global chip market. “Revenues continued to grow last year, but the operating profit decreased compared with a year earlier as the industry entered into a downturn from the second half,” SK’s Chief Financial Officer Kim Woo-hyun said during an earnings call for the

Industry Feb. 1, 2023

Despite witnessing a sharp drop in chip profits, Samsung Electronics said it will not scale back its output and spending in 2023, bucking the trend of cost-cutting among its global rivals. "The deteriorated business environment is not so favorable for our performance for now, but we believe it is also an opportunity where we can thoroughly prepare for the future," the company said Tuesday in the earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022. The company added that its capital expenditur

Industry Jan. 31, 2023

LG Innotek said Monday it will ramp up development of its flip chip ball grid array packages, or high-density package substrates to secure a top position in the market. "FC-BGA is a sector LG Innotek can excel in, as the company has been leading the global substrate material market with its unrivaled technology and productivity," said LG Innotek's president and CEO, Jeong Cheol-dong. "We will create differentiated customer value so the company can lead the global FC-BGA marke

Industry Jan. 30, 2023

Samsung Display has recently filed a complaint against 17 smartphone repair shops in the US over their use of “illegal” panels that it says infringed its highly sophisticated OLED patents, according to industry sources Monday. The display-making unit of Samsung Electronics is a market leader making almost 70 percent of OLED panels used in high-end mobile devices, including Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone smartphones. Sources say the company seems determined to offer no leniency for

Industry Jan. 30, 2023

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics has hired two experts from Swedish telco Ericsson to reinforce its network business. According to industry sources on Sunday, Samsung recently established a task force under its network business division to oversee a new business strategy. For the task force chief, the company hired Henrik Jansson, formerly the strategic sourcing manager for Ericsson. The company also recruited Jo Mi-sun who served as the head of sustainability and corporate responsibi

Industry Jan. 29, 2023