SK Group said Tuesday it will establish a giant research and development center dedicated to green technologies. According to the third-largest South Korean conglomerate, the R&D facility, tentatively named “SK Green Techno Campus,” will break ground in 2025 in Bucheon, adjacent to Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, and reach completion in 2027. The facility, on a 198,000-square-meter site, will house...

Using a technology called depolymerization, SK Chemicals turns waste PET bottles into new PET materials. With recycled PET materials, SK Chemicals will produce and supply plastic cutleries starting this month as demand for disposable spoons and forks soar amid the pandemic. “Last month, the Korean government announced a circular economy plan that mandates domestic plastic manufacturers to use re...

Hanwha Q Cells said Monday that its CEO Lee Ku-hyung has been appointed the 14th chairman of the Korea New and Renewable Energy Association, a business lobby with some 420 member companies. Lee, who joined Hanwha Group in 1990, has served key positions at the group’s solar solutions unit Hanwha Q Cells, formerly Hanwha SolarOne, since 2011 and was promoted to the top position in September last y...

Samsung SDI’s long-held “premium strategy” with high pricing is expected to face a daunting test in its renewed competition with rivals amid ever-evolving market trends. Until 2020, bringing down the price through scale and manufacturing more powerful batteries were of the utmost priority. However, as the competition heats up with the entry of new players, securing stable profits through partner...

Almost 90 percent of South Korean companies are unprepared for supply chain risks even though they are aware that those risks will continue this year. According to a survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry published on Sunday, among 300 companies that import raw materials, only 9.4 percent said they have prepared specific measures to respond to potential supply chain constraints, wh...

LG Energy Solution will employ four preemptive measures as it can’t afford yet another recall crisis after going public next week. According to market analysts Thursday, the South Korean battery giant will adopt Z-folding technology, manufacture more batteries resistant to gas issues, directly manufacture key safety components and mount ESS with fire-resistant LFP batteries. Z-folding The adop...

Honda has become the third global automaker after General Motors and Hyundai Motor to jointly develop next-generation electric vehicle batteries with SES, a Boston-based startup set to go public in the US this year. According to SES Thursday, the Japanese automaker agreed to acquire a 2 percent stake in the startup and jointly develop lithium-metal batteries, which are 30 percent more powerful t...

Samsung Electronics’ obsession for foldable smartphones is drawing market concerns as the South Korean tech giant is missing out on what’s coming next: The metaverse. According to market tracker Counterpoint Research Wednesday, Samsung remained as the No. 1 global smartphone brand by market share in 2021, but its smartphone business by sales grew just 0.9 percent on-year, drawing a big compariso...

Samsung Electronics is expected to introduce household robots under the brand “Samsung Bot” in the North American market. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization on Tuesday, the South Korean tech giant recently completed a trademark registration of Samsung Bot in the US and Canada. Samsung Bot encompasses all types of applications including industrial robots, exoskeleton robot...

LG Chem will extract oil from plastic waste and reuse it for plastic production starting in 2024. According to South Korea’s leading chemical company Tuesday, it will establish a facility in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, where the plastic waste will be chemically recycled with extremely hot and pressurized steam. Once completed in the first quarter of 2024, the facility, with an annual ca...

The goal of Samsung Electronics becoming the No. 1 foundry player by 2030 is facing a major hurdle as its rival TSMC prepares a whopping $44 billion investment in 2022 to consolidate its lead, according to industry sources Monday. “Last year, Samsung Electronics spent roughly 40 trillion won ($33.5 billion) in memory, foundry and infrastructure investments. This year, TSMC plans to spend more th...

Porsche Taycan 2019 models surprised the world when they were first released by supporting rapid charging from 0 to 100 percent in 20-30 minutes, which was almost twice as fast as other electric vehicles at the time. Behind this jaw-dropping performance stood LG Energy Solution’s two breakthrough EV battery manufacturing technologies, which are similar to making peanut butter and jelly sandwiche...

LG Energy Solution said Friday that heated institutional demand has set its initial public offering price at the top end of its target range at 300,000 won ($252.80). In a regulatory filing, the firm said as many as 1,988 institutions have subscribed to its offering of 41.5 million initial issues. The shares were oversubscribed by more than 2,023 times, with all of the investors proposing to buy...

South Korean materials producer Solus Advanced Materials said Friday it has won incentives worth 24 million euros ($27.5 million) from the Hungarian government for facility expansion in the Central European country. The funds will be granted in cash by 2023. The firm said the funds will be used for the expansion of its plant No. 2 in Hungary that manufactures copper foil for batteries used in el...

South Korean electric vehicle battery giant LG Energy Solution and Japanese automaker Honda are in talks to form a joint venture in the US in a rare partnership between Korean and Japanese companies, according to industry sources Friday. The two companies are reportedly in the early stage of discussions to set up a 4 trillion-won ($3.3 billion) EV battery factory in the US with an annual product...