Korea Electric Power Corp. said Friday that it recorded 430.6 billion won ($350.1 million) in operating profit in the first quarter this year, swinging back into the black in three years. The state-run utility witnessed 430.6 billion won in operating profit, a 1-trillion-won increase on-year from an operating loss of 629.9 billion won thanks due to a sharp fall in oil prices. “Thanks to the global fall in fuel prices, Kepco’s expenses spent for fuel and electricity purchases dec

Industry May 15, 2020

Korea Gas Corp. said Wednesday it is expanding its liquefied natural gas bunkering infrastructure to respond to the global shift to cleaner ship fuel. LNG bunkering is the process of transferring gas to a ship for use as fuel. The state-run natural gas company said it has recently built an LNG carrier SM JEJU LNG2 equipped with ship-to-ship bunkering capabilities. Also, as the ship sails between Jeju Island and Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, it has installed four loading arms -- a pi

Industry May 14, 2020

S-Oil said Thursday it has partnered with South Korea’s mobile payment platform Kakao Pay that has more than 30 million members, boosting customer experience by facilitating mobile payment at its service stations. The company said it has become the first Korean refiner to introduce Kakao Pay payment at service stations. Instead of carrying credit cards or cash, customers can make payments by scanning their barcodes on the Kakao Pay app. Over the past week, some 200 S-Oil service stat

Industry May 14, 2020

South Korean game giant Nexon announced Wednesday that it posted a decline in revenue, operating profit and net profit in the first quarter, drawing concerns over its performance in overseas markets. The company’s revenue dipped 11 percent on-year to 904.5 billion won ($738.6 million) while its operating profit and net profit dived 21 percent and 7 percent to 454 billion won and 545.5 billion won, respectively. Nexon’s performance in South Korea was stellar, posting the best qua

Industry May 13, 2020

LG Chem on Wednesday dispatched a special task force comprised of eight officials to India in the aftermath of a deadly styrene gas leak at a LG Poloymers plant, which left at least 12 local residents dead and more than 1,000 hospitalized. The South Korean chemical and battery firm said the special team includes production and environmental safety experts led by LG Chem Executive Vice President and President of Petrochemicals Business Noh Kug-lae, who will meet local residents and explain su

Industry May 13, 2020

The Korea Electric Power Corp. said Wednesday that it had won an international bid to build and operate a solar power generation facility in Guam. The state-run utility won an international bid from the Guam Power Authority and signed a long-term electricity supply contract that is expected to bring in $340 million for the company over 25 years. Samsung C&T is to build solar power generation facilities with a capacity of 60 megawatts and an energy storage systems power plant with a capa

Industry May 13, 2020

LG Chem topped the global electric vehicle battery market in the first quarter thanks to client company Tesla’s strong sales, data showed Wednesday. According to market tracker EV Volumes, the company supplied 14 percent of the batteries for 88,461 Tesla EVs in the first quarter. Propelled by Tesla’s strong sales, LG Chem supplied EV batteries with a total storage capacity of 6.3 gigawatt hours. It took the lead over its Japanese competitor Panasonic for the first time in terms o

Industry May 13, 2020

S-Oil said Wednesday that its chief executive has donated 280 million won ($228,275) to a social welfare organization to help local communities hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Hussain Al-Qahtani, who was appointed as the company’s new CEO last June, made the donation to the Korea National Council on Social Welfare while also launching corporate social responsibility activities at some 250 service stations nationwide. In the campaign, S-Oil’s marketing staff and executives will c

Industry May 13, 2020

South Korean game company NCSoft said Tuesday it posted a record quarterly revenue of 731.1 billion won ($596.1 million) owing to the strong sales of mobile games as the COVID-19 outbreak kept people indoors, driving up demand. According to its regulatory filing, the sales of mobile games in the first quarter surged 54 percent to 553.2 billion won from the previous one, accounting for 75.6 percent of the total revenue. NCSoft’s flagship mobile games Lineage M and Lineage 2M brought i

Industry May 12, 2020

Yes, Riot Games’ Valorant is a new game. But is it original? Certainly not. The soon-to-be released first-person shooter game seems like a mishmash of everything users have seen before -- the graphics of Team Fortress 2, the effects of Paladins, the gameplay of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the gun sounds of Sudden Attack and skills that recall Overwatch and Apex Legends. Though it’s undeniable that Valorant was “inspired” by other FPS titles, the game itself is

Industry May 11, 2020

A new app from Korean oil refiner GS Caltex will allow charging and payment services at its gas stations without coming into contact with staff, to ensure safety amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. According to GS Caltex with some 330 gas stations here, its non-face-to-face refueling and payment app OWiN saw a 1,000 percent surge in monthly use in March compared to December last year. The number of app users spiked more than 500 percent in the same period. “With OWiN app, customer

Industry May 10, 2020

With a dramatic drop in international oil prices and sluggish demand amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, oil refinery businesses in South Korea logged their worst-ever performances in the first quarter. Aside from plummeting product prices devastating earnings, some of the companies have also been facing difficulties in managing their recently unwanted stockpiles. Korea’s leading oil refinery and gas station operator SK Energy, in particular, is running out of storage space for crude

Industry May 10, 2020

South Korean chemical and battery firm LG Chem said Sunday that the company is considering ways to help the victims of the recent gas leak in India, including a visit by its vice chairman to oversee the efforts. After a gas leak at the LG Polymers plant in southern India on Thursday, which left 12 dead and around 1,000 local residents hospitalized, LG Chem has formed a special task force, promising support for victims and bereaved families. “For a thorough investigation and victim sup

Industry May 10, 2020

Korean oil refiner Hyundai Oilbank said Sunday it would commercialize a technology that can turn carbon emissions and residual products emitted from refineries into paper and construction materials. Hyundai Oilbank said Sunday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Taekyung BK, a domestic manufacturer and distributor of lime with the technology to make calcium carbonate out of carbon emissions from refineries. Calcium carbonate is a raw material for making cement, paper, plastic

Industry May 10, 2020

LG Chem announced Thursday its new vision to transform the company from providing materials and solutions to one connecting science to life. The company held a ceremony marking its first vision change in 14 years with LG Chem Vice Chairman Shin Hak-cheol presiding in the presence of some 20 staff and executives from each department. “So far, LG Chem has turned dreams into reality with the science around us and has accumulated, making unbreakable lids for cosmetic products and the wor

Industry May 7, 2020