LG Electronics CEO travels to Southeast Asia to further market dominance

LG Electronics Chief Executive Officer Cho Joo-wan traveled to Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand last week to inspect the company's key production facilities in Asia, the Korean consumer appliances giant said on Sunday. On the three-day tour, Cho met with the heads of the company's regional corporations and discussed ways to boost competitiveness and further dominance in the global market, LG said. The CEO also inspected the key plants that produce automotive parts, home appliances and T

April 9, 2023

LG Electronics estimates to log second-highest Q1 profit of W1.5tr

LG Electronics said Friday it predicted its first-quarter operating earnings at 1.5 trillion won ($1.14 billion), which will likely be the company’s second-highest profit for the January-March period, outpacing Samsung Electronics' financial result for the first time in more than a decade. In its earnings guidance, the consumer electronics giant estimated its January-March operating profit will likely fall 23 percent from a year ago. The operating income exceeded the local analyst con

April 7, 2023

Samsung Electronics cuts chip production as Q1 profit likely to hit 14-year low

Samsung Electronics said Friday it was cutting its chip production to a “meaningful level” after reporting a worse-than-expected 96 percent plunge in its quarterly operating profit estimate amid the global chip downturn. “We’re adjusting to a lower memory production at a meaningful level centering on products that have secured enough inventory to respond to future demand, in addition to optimizing line operations that are already underway,” the company said in a sta

April 7, 2023

LG’s top brass joins forces to garner support for Busan’s Expo bid

As South Korean business leaders play a key role in attracting support for Busan’s bid to host the World Expo 2030, LG Group’s top executives traveled around the world to win votes. In October last year, Chairman Koo Kwang-mo visited Poland to meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, requesting the country’s support for Busan’s Expo bid. “Busan is South Korea’s second largest city, and it is also where LG first started its business. Busan is also wh

April 6, 2023

World Expo to evolve into global solutions platform in Busan

South Korea's bid to host the World Expo in Busan envisions the event morphing into a global platform providing solutions for the pressing challenges faced by the post-pandemic world. Under the theme of “Transforming Our World, Navigating Toward a Better Future," Busan aims to lead the global fair to take a great leap forward to become a venue of discussions needed for radical transformation like climate change, polarization and digitization. In the past, Expo themes were typical

April 6, 2023

Global Business Forum seeks ways to live with advanced AI

In an age of advanced artificial intelligence, experts suggested ways to effectively use the high-level technology at the Global Business Forum hosted by The Korea Herald on Wednesday. “With the ChatGPT boom, we need to think about how to wisely use AI and seek happiness in our lives,” said Chang Dong-seon, CEO of Curious Brain Lab, during the during the seventh session of the forum held at the Ambassador Seoul hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. For instance, people seem to consider techno

April 6, 2023

W160tr pledged to secure ‘super gap’ technologies

South Korea will invest 160 trillion won ($121 billion) to secure core technologies in the country’s three major sectors -- semiconductor, display and battery -- through 2027, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday. “The semiconductor, display and next-generation battery sectors are the supporting technologies that have stably backed up our economy based on the super capabilities of the private sector,” said Science Minister Lee Jong-ho. According to the government&rsquo

April 6, 2023

[Photo News] Samsung's big bet on display

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (center), Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (third from left) and other government and company officials pose for a photo at Samsung Display’s Asan Campus in Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday in celebration of the tech giant’s new 4.1 trillion won ($3.1 billion) investment into upgrading production lines of high-end display panels by 2026. Samsung said its planned investment could help facilitate related industrial ecosystems as well as the loc

April 5, 2023

US hinders S. Korea’s nuclear plant export to Czech Republic

The US government has turned down Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s report on bidding for a nuclear power plant project in the Czech Republic, raising concerns that the Korean export plans of reactors may fall short due to ongoing litigation with Westinghouse Electric Co. The documents, which were submitted to the US District Court in Washington, showed Wednesday that KHNP submitted the relevant paperwork to the Department of Energy in December in compliance with the US Code of Federal Reg

April 5, 2023

Busan's historic trade port to turn into BIE big data hub

South Korea has proposed turning its first trade port in Busan, the North Port, into a big data center storing the history and legacy of Bureau International des Expositions, if it succeeds in its bid to host the World Expo in Busan in 2030. The Busan Expo bidding committee made the proposal to the BIE delegation while it was here for on a six-day inspection trip, which began Sunday. The next World Expo will take place in 2030, the year the BIE marking its 100th anniversary. Bidding to host the

April 5, 2023

Users can now decline KakaoTalk group chat invites from non-friends

KakaoTalk, South Korea’s ubiquitous mobile messenger app, has finally let users decline unwanted group chat invites from people outside of their friend list, a much-anticipated move for those who have experienced stress or discomfort over exiting group chats. However, if the inviter is on a user's KakaoTalk friends list, the user will be automatically added into the group chat. The new feature, which was added as part of a KakaoTalk system update last week to version 10.1.5, requires

April 4, 2023

Korea vows all-out efforts to fight trade deficit

Experiencing a trade deficit for more than 13 consecutive months, South Korea will make pangovernmental efforts to lead a turnaround in trade, introducing support programs to foster key industries, the Trade Ministry said Monday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it held a trade inspection meeting in Seoul with related government agencies to find ways to deal with the continuing fall in trade. “While the country logged a massive trade deficit in January, the balance is gradua

April 3, 2023

KT plagued by unprecedented leadership vacuum

South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corp. is in shambles due to an unprecedented leadership vacuum, with not only its chief executive, but also almost all of its board members stepping down amid speculations of revolving door appointments. Just before the start of this year's regular shareholders meeting on Friday, KT's three outside board members -- Kang Chung-gu, Pyo Hyun-myung and Yeo Eun-jung -- announced their resignations, leaving the board in almost complete vacancy. Kim

March 31, 2023

Naver to support Saudi Arabia in building city-scale digital twin, super app

Naver will support Saudi Arabia in creating a city-scale digital twin and developing a “super app” using its advanced technologies, the South Korean internet giant said Thursday. Naver said the company and its artificial intelligence and cloud service affiliates Naver Labs and Naver Cloud signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, or MoMRAH, and the Ministry of Investment, or MISA, to cooperate on the Middle Eastern country&rsquo

March 31, 2023

Korean chips act aims to extend tax cuts for local chipmakers

South Korea on Thursday passed a revision bill deemed the “Korean chips act” with greater tax breaks for investments in the semiconductor industry to lighten the burden for Korean chipmakers competing in the global chips arms race. The National Assembly passed a revision bill to the Restriction of Special Taxation Act, which raises the corporate tax break for facility investment in the semiconductor and other strategic industries to 15 percent for large corporations such as Samsung E

March 30, 2023

McKinsey promotes Hyejin Kang to senior partner in Seoul office

McKinsey & Co., a global consulting firm, said Wednesday it has promoted partner Hyejin Kang to senior partner. Kang, who assumes the role on April 1, holds a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Seoul National University and a doctorate in neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology in the US. Since joining the company in 2001, Kang has been in charge of evaluating corporate culture of Korea’s top 100 companies. She is credited for playing a leading role in facilit

March 29, 2023

LG Innotek develops upgraded vehicle communication module

LG Innotek said Wednesday it has successfully developed an upgraded vehicle-to-everything communication module that drastically improves data transmission speed. The second-generation 5G network-based module, using Qualcomm chips, is considered a crucial safety component for autonomous driving. The company said it is seeking to start promotional activities targeting global car and parts makers, with an aim to debut the final product by 2025. The official product name is 5G-V2X Cellular Module. T

March 29, 2023

SK hynix CEO says won't cut production further

SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, will not carry out an additional cut in chip production this year, and will stick to its plan to build an advanced packaging plant in the US, the company's chief executive officer said Wednesday. Speaking at a shareholders meeting at the company's headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, SK hynix Vice Chairman and co-CEO Park Jung-ho forecast the demand for chips to recover in the second half of this year. But as uncertaint

March 29, 2023

Celltrion chairman hints at aggressive M&As this year

Celltrion's founder and returned chairman Seo Jung-jin said the company will be able to secure some 5 trillion won ($3.8 billion) for mergers and acquisitions of pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, through which the company aims to boost its new drug development capability. The company also plans to build its fourth manufacturing plant in the US, according to the chairman. "After the first half this year, the number of M&A candidates will come down to around 10, and the company w

March 29, 2023

[Beyond Earth] ‘Korea needs to join inner club of space powerhouses’

South Korea needs to join the “inner club of global space powerhouses” by developing unmatched space technology and becoming an attractive partner within the club, according to the first vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT. “There are areas where we need to stand on our own in terms of technology. But we can’t do everything by ourselves. For instance, we can’t do space exploration alone,” said First Vice Minister Oh Tae-seog in a recent interview

March 29, 2023