Nearly one-third TVs sold worldwide are from Samsung

Samsung Electronics continued its winning streak in global TV sales, selling nearly one-third of TVs across the world in the first half, according to market tracker Omdia on Tuesday. In the first six months of this year, 92.6 million units of TVs, worth $475 million, were sold globally. The sales figure was down 6.6 percent compared to a year ago. Omdia cited the Russia-Ukraine war, protracted lockdowns in China’s major cities and inflation fears as the key reasons behind the slowing T

Aug. 23, 2022

Battery material firm L&F to spend W650b on expansion in Daegu

South Korean cathode active material supplier L&F is poised to invest 650 billion won ($483.1 million) in the next two years in a new line of production in Daegu, a filing showed Monday. Once the construction is complete, tentatively by August 2024, the new factory of L&F in Dalseong County, around 240 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will produce nickel-rich cathode active materials for batteries made of nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum, with their nickel content comprising at lea

Aug. 22, 2022

Celltrion establishes R&D office in Boston

Celltrion has opened a research and development office in Boston to speed up its new drug development efforts in the US while seeking and boosting cooperation with other firms, company officials said Monday. According to company officials, the South Korean biopharmaceutical giant completed the establishment of the Boston office earlier this year. The new US office has been exploring the biotechnology industry’s trends while gathering information on startups and pipelines with investment

Aug. 22, 2022

Naver becomes 1st Korean IT firm to join RE100

Naver has become the first South Korean information technology company to join the global RE100 renewable energy initiative to achieve carbon neutrality, the firm said Monday. The RE100 initiative, which is led by the Climate Group in partnership with CDP -- formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project -- commits members to using 100 percent renewable electricity. Naver said it plans to initiate its “2040 Carbon Negative” roadmap, which was established last year, to meet the goal

Aug. 22, 2022

Samsung to offer free repairs of over 90,000 defective washing machines

South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung Electronics has begun to voluntarily offer free repairs of its defective front-load washing machines whose doors are prone to explosion for Korean consumers, according to consumer watchdogs on Monday. The organizations, the Korea Consumer Agency and Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, urged customers who bought three models of Samsung’s Bespoke Grande AI washers to “immediately request a repair” of glass doors to

Aug. 22, 2022

Samsung to expand Bespoke lineup in Europe

Samsung Electronics said Monday it is unveiling a wider lineup of its Bespoke home appliances at the upcoming IFA trade show in Germany in a renewed sales push in the European market. The Bespoke brand, launched in 2019, has revamped Samsung’s home appliance strategy. Its unique modular concept allows users to customize the material, color, size and door configurations of home appliances. Its flagship refrigerator has seen almost 2 million unit sales worldwide since its debut in 2019,

Aug. 22, 2022

Samsung chief's visit to chip plant signals spending boost

Samsung Electronics‘ de facto leader Lee Jae-yong’s visit to the groundbreaking ceremony of its 20-trillion-won ($14.97 billion) research and development center in the southern suburb of Seoul signals a spending boost as part of its “supergap strategy.” Lee told some 100 staff and executives at the ceremony held at Giheung Campus -- the birthplace of Samsung‘s semiconductor business four decades ago -- that Samsung employees should “maintain its tradition of

Aug. 21, 2022

[Weekender] The mundane job of teaching AI about the real world

  Tech evangelists say artificial intelligence and robots will one day liberate humans from simple and repetitive physical or cognitive tasks.  But before we are all freed from the tedium of such chores, AI first needs an army of patient workers to teach it the subtleties of the real world, such as how to differentiate between a cat and a dog.  Known as data labelers or data annotators, these workers handle large amounts of raw data, made up of images, videos or audio record

Aug. 20, 2022

SK buys $150m stake in US energy solution firm Atom Power

SK Group, South Korea‘s second-largest conglomerate by assets, has completed a $150 million deal to buy a stake in US energy solution firm Atom Power, according to the group Thursday. The group’s affiliates, holding company SK Inc. and oil refinery SK Energy, have purchased the undisclosed amount of the controlling stake. Atom Power, based in Huntersville, North Carolina, is dedicated to semiconductor chip-powered solid-state digital circuit breakers for customized control of ele

Aug. 18, 2022

Eurocell to build $800m battery plant in Netherlands

A next-generation secondary battery joint venture backed by South Korean manufacturers including Eurocell has been in talks with the Netherlands authorities to pick the nation as the site for its first European gigafactory, according to the company Thursday. The Anglo-Korean joint venture Eurocell EMEA, based in Birmingham, the United Kingdom, is expected to build the new facility in two phases following a total of $800 million investment by 2025. “With rapid expansion plans in Europe,

Aug. 18, 2022

LX Semicon eyes Kospi listing

South Korean chip design house LX Semicon is seeking shareholder approval for a delisting from the stock market’s Kosdaq development board and a listing on the main board Kospi, filings showed Thursday. LX Semicon, a chipmaker dedicated to display driver integrated circuits for TVs and mobile phones, is scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholder meeting on Sept. 23 at its headquarters in Daejeon. The listing change earned board approval Wednesday, 13 years after the listing on the Ko

Aug. 18, 2022

Korea develops core equipment for NASA’s space telescope

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has developed core equipment required for the ground testing of NASA’s future space observatory project, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday. The state-run KASI has put together a cryogenic vacuum chamber for NASA’s project -- Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, also known as SPHEREx. If successful, the project will mark the world’s first observation of the entir

Aug. 17, 2022

Full-fledged succession looms after pardon for Samsung's Lee Jae-yong

Samsung is envisioning a change in governance structure as a presidential pardon has virtually normalized de facto leader Lee Jae-yong’s control over the nation’s largest conglomerate. Lee Chan-hee, chief of Samsung’s independent compliance oversight committee, told the press before the committee’s regular meeting Tuesday that it is “working to address the corporate governance issue” of Samsung, while declining to elaborate further on the proceedings. &ldqu

Aug. 16, 2022

Samsung unveils world’s largest gaming monitor

Samsung Electronics announced Tuesday that it has launched the world’s largest curved gaming monitor -- at 55 inches -- that wraps around users’ field of view to bring their gaming experience to the next level. “A curved monitor gives users a fully immersive experience if viewed from the distance of 80 centimeters, as a flat monitor would cover less of a user‘s peripheral vision,” Chung Kang-il, vice president of visual display at Samsung Electronics, said at a pre

Aug. 16, 2022

Galaxy Watch5 adopts most advanced sleep tracking: Samsung exec

Samsung Electronics executive vice president Yang Tae-jong said the IT giant’s newest smart wearable device -- Galaxy Watch5 series -- offers the world’s most advanced sleep-tracking technology in a press conference held Thursday in New York, a day after the Galaxy Unpacked August 2022 event. “Galaxy Watch5 is loaded with various technologies including an innovative bioactive sensor that can measure biometrics to help (users) stay healthy. Galaxy Watch5 will be the best partn

Aug. 15, 2022

Pardon clears way for Lee to fill Samsung’s leadership void, spur investment

President Yoon Suk-yeol’s decision to grant a special pardon on Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on Friday is expected to speed up his return to leadership of Korea’s largest family-controlled chaebol and the world’s largest memory chipmaker. Set to be granted on Aug. 15 Liberation Day, the clemency will lift the employment restriction placed on him that was effective until 2027. This would open the door for the 54-year-old third-generation chaebol chief to be promoted to the chairma

Aug. 12, 2022

[Newsmaker] [From the Scene] Korea's 1st domestic COVID-19 vaccine ready

ANDONG, North Gyeongsang Province -- Hundreds of vials were lined up on the belt of a packaging machine at L House, SK Bioscience’s vaccine manufacturing facility in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday afternoon, as the developer of South Korea’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione is poised to roll out the vaccine’s first batch by the end of August. A few technicians, who were covered from head to toe with sterilized gear -- protective shoes, clothing and

Aug. 11, 2022

By 2025, half of Samsung’s premium phone shipment will be foldables

Samsung Electronics mobile head, Roh Tae-moon, said the South Korean tech giant looks to target wider audiences with its Galaxy foldable phones in a bid to address the sluggish growth of its premium smartphones and macroeconomic headwinds, in a press conference held Wednesday, in New York. As the clamshell-type Galaxy Z Flip and book-type Galaxy Z Fold evolve, the combined shipments of two models by the world’s largest foldable phone maker will outsize that of other Galaxy premium smartp

Aug. 11, 2022

[Newsmaker] Samsung foldables to get chipset upgrade

Samsung Electronics, a chips-to-smartphones company, said Wednesday it plans to roll out its clamshell Galaxy Z Flip 4 and foldable Galaxy Z Fold 4 on Aug. 26 in South Korea, the United States and Europe. Both the Z Flip 4, a more affordable version of the Samsung premium phone that would deploy foldable form factors, and the Z Fold 4, a workspace-dedicated tabletlike device, will boast enhanced camera features and chipsets that power them. The Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 will deploy a new mobile ch

Aug. 10, 2022

Korean researchers develop homegrown fluorine-based polyimide film

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Production Technology said Wednesday that they have succeeded in developing a fluorine-based polyimide film, opening a leeway to produce the material without having to rely on imports from Japan. The film is a crucial part of foldable displays, as it gets rid of wrinkles when folded. It has been under the Japanese government’s export control since 2019, which had Korean manufacturers in a panic due to their heavy dependence on items produced in the nei

Aug. 10, 2022