Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Han Jong-hee is in Vietnam to make final preparations for the South Korean tech giant’s annual Galaxy Unpacked event scheduled this Thursday. According to an industry source Tuesday, the executive arrived in Hanoi on Monday to check the production of Galaxy 22 smartphones. This is Han’s first visit to Vietnam since Samsung Electronics merged its smartphone and consumer electronics divisions into the mobile experience (MX) division in Decem

Industry Feb. 8, 2022

LG Energy Solution was the most renewable company in South Korea in 2020, a report showed Monday. According to a report published by Carbon Disclosure Project, an environmental non-government organization, LG Energy Solution transitioned to renewable energy 33 percent, the highest figure among Korean firms participating in the Renewable Energy 100 initiative. Renewable Energy 100, or RE100, is a global initiative to shift 100 percent to renewable energy by 2050. The campaign is led by The Cl

Industry Feb. 7, 2022

Lotte Chemical will inject more than 602 billion won ($502.3 million) to produce raw materials for electric vehicle batteries and build new facilities for carbon capture and liquefaction on a 67,000-square-meter site inside a petrochemical complex in Daesan, South Chungcheong Province. The chemical unit of Lotte Group will use the fund to manufacture high-purity ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate. The two are raw materials of electrolytes, one of the four key components of EV batteries.

Industry Feb. 7, 2022

Samsung Display has launched a new platform where its vendors can test their raw materials for OLED panels free of charge, the company said Sunday. The “Sync-OLED” platform, co-developed with the supercomputing center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, allows suppliers to run simulations on their materials and predict how they will affect the performance of OLED panels. The new platform is expected to shave costs significantly for partners. When partn

Industry Feb. 6, 2022

Samsung SDI will voluntarily recall 1,163 battery modules inside some 100 Ford and Stellantis vehicles in the US due to welding issues, according to the governmental National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Sunday. While putting battery cells together into modules, components called bus bars were not welded properly, which could lead to a loss of propulsion of electric vehicles. The bus bars were manufactured by South Korean subsupplier Next+. As the recall is due to welding issues

Industry Feb. 6, 2022

A consortium led by Lotte Ventures, a startup investment unit of South Korea’s No. 5 conglomerate Lotte Group, injected $11 million into Soelect, a North Carolina-based firm that manufactures next-generation materials for electric vehicle batteries. According to the Soelect Thursday, the consortium, comprised of Lotte Ventures, General Motors Ventures and KTB Network, will support the US startup to commercialize its EV battery technology. The startup develops materials that go inside

Industry Feb. 3, 2022

Samsung SDI has established a new organization to accomplish its environmental, social and governance goals, including a full transition to renewable energy by 2050. According to the South Korean battery firm Thursday, its board of directors formed a sustainable business management committee to bolster ESG efforts. Also, an ESG strategy team, which previously belonged to the firm’s strategy division, has been elevated to a sustainable business management bureau directly under the chief fi

Industry Feb. 3, 2022

A giant container ship that was knocked off by strong winds and blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal in 2021 was mounted with an 85-megawatt engine. Powered by fossil fuels, the engine is a miniature coal power plant that generates massive energy to maneuver the 200,000-ton ship the length of four football fields. South Korea, the world‘s No. 1 shipbuilder, last year bagged 88 percent of global orders to build such huge container ships powered by internal combustion engines. Like it or not,

Industry Feb. 1, 2022

South Korea witnessed a trade deficit for two consecutive months for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008, due to rising prices of energy and raw materials. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Asia’s No. 4 economy saw its exports increase 15.2 percent on-year to $55.3 billion in February, while its imports surged 35.5 percent to $60.2 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $4.8 billion. This is the first two-month trade deficit since the four

Industry Feb. 1, 2022

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix announced Friday that its annual revenue surged 35 percent to 42.9 trillion won ($35.6 billion) on-year, a record figure for the company. Operating profit spiked 148 percent to 12.4 trillion won. The record performance was propelled by the robust demand in IT gadgets amid a non-face-to-face trend despite uncertainties posed by supply chain risks, the company explained. The previous record was 40.4 trillion won of revenue in 2018, when the firm benefited from a

Technology Jan. 28, 2022

Hyundai Motor will develop a marine mobility platform powered by seawater by 2023 to replace small and mid-sized diesel ships polluting the sea. The project has been directly reported to Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Euisun. According to industry sources Thursday, the automaker is developing a 15-20 meter-long yacht powered by the firm’s hydrogen fuel cells. The trimaran yacht has three hulls, each of which is installed with equipment to break seawater into hydrogen. Then, hydrogen fuel

Industry Jan. 27, 2022

현대자동차가 지상을 넘어 해상으로 닻을 올렸다. 소금물로 작동하는 ‘해상’ 모빌리티 플랫폼을 2023년까지 협력사들과 함께 선보인다는 계획이다. 해당 프로젝트는 경영진 최고위층까지 보고된 것으로 확인됐다. 27일 조선업계에 따르면 현대차는 자사의 수소연료전지가 탑재된 15-20 미터 길이의 요트를 개발 중이다. 해당 요트는 ‘트리마란’ 형태로, 중앙 선체 양옆으로 더 작은 선체 두 개가 연결되어 있다. 각 선체가 바닷물을 수소로 분해하면, 내부에 탑재된 수소연료전지가 전기를 생산하고, 프로펠러가 돌아가며 요트를 구동한다. 바닷물에서 수소를 추출할 때 필요한 전력은 돛에 설치된 태양광 전지와 선체에 부착된 두 대의 수직형 풍력 발전기가 공급한다. 대당 가격은 45억이다. 한 업계 고위 관계자는 코리아헤럴드와 만나 해당 프로젝트는 “현대차 상용디자인실장 하학수 상무의 작품”이라고 말했다. 또한 “컨

한국어판 Jan. 27, 2022

LG Energy Solution and General Motors said Wednesday they will invest $2.6 billion to build their third electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in the US. The facility will be located in Lansing, Michigan. The factory will begin mass production in early 2025 and produce 50 gigawatt-hours of EV batteries per year once fully operational, which is enough to power 700,000 EVs that can travel more than 500 kilometers in a single charge. The investment is expected to create 1,700 new jobs.

Industry Jan. 26, 2022

Posco Chemical posted record revenues in 2021, largely buoyed by a robust performance of its secondary battery materials business, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. According to the refractory and secondary battery materials arm of South Korean steel giant Posco, its sales surged 27 percent to 1.98 trillion won ($1.65 billion) on-year, a record figure in the company’s history. Operating profits also soared 101.9 percent to 121.7 billion won in the same period. Po

Industry Jan. 26, 2022

SKC, the chemicals unit of South Korea’s No. 3 conglomerate SK Group, said Wednesday it has invested $80 million with partners to secure next-generation electric vehicle battery technologies. According to SKC, it formed a consortium with SJL Partners, BNW Investment and Kiwoom PE and invested $80 million in Nexeon, which develops materials that go inside the minus sides of electric vehicle batteries. Through the investment, the consortium secured a partial stake in the British firm a

Industry Jan. 26, 2022