Woori Bank accelerates overseas expansion

Woori Bank, one of South Korea’s top four commercial banks, has announced its plan to achieve up to 25 percent of its net profit from global sales by 2030. “Woori Bank's global division reported a net profit of $340 million last year, and it has achieved an average annual asset growth of 9 percent during the last three years," Yun Seog-mo, Woori Bank's global business division head said during a press conference held at the bank's headquarters in Seoul on Wednesda

Oct. 25, 2023

Eximbank holds workshop on development financing

The 27th Economic Development Cooperation Fund Annual Workshop, hosted by the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank), kicked off Tuesday, inviting a total of 15 government officials from 14 developing countries. The EDCF Annual Workshop, a four-day event, aims to introduce South Korea’s EDCF financing to public officials around the world. The EDCF, an aid loan funded by the Korean government, was launched in 1987 under an official development assistance initiative. Eximbank is in

Oct. 25, 2023

Shinhan Card's Kazakh unit secures $60m funding from IFC

Shihan Finance, Shinhan Card’s subsidiary in Kazakhstan, has secured a $60 million investment from the International Finance Corporation, the Korean car issuers under Shinhan Financial Group said Wednesday. The latest funding is the first of its kind announced since Shinhan Financial Group and the IFC signed a memorandum of understanding in May this year to cooperate in environmental, social and governance projects. Of the $60 million, some $20 million will be used first to fund the compan

Oct. 25, 2023

KAI partners with Saudi Space Agency to lead new space era

Korea Aerospace Industries has joined hands with the Saudi Space Agency to collaborate on strengthening their partnership in the space sector as part of efforts to lead the expanding space industry in the Middle East. According to KAI, the chiefs of KAI and SSA on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding in Riyadh. The partnership agreement took place during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to Saudi Arabia, which began Saturday. KAI officials traveled to the Middle Eastern count

Oct. 25, 2023

SK Signet delivers W5b ultrafast EV chargers to Revel

SK Signet, the electric vehicle charger maker under SK Group, said Wednesday that it has delivered the first shipment of its new V2 ultrafast 400-kilowatt EV chargers, to Revel, a Brooklyn-based electric mobility and infrastructure firm, in a deal worth to 5 billion won ($3.7 million). Revel is the first client to receive the V2 since its mass production. Accelerating EV adoption in the city, the US company provides electric rideshare services, mopeds rental, and fast charging stations dubbed &l

Oct. 25, 2023

S-Oil to import low-carbon ammonia from Saudi Aramco

South Korean oil refiner S-Oil announced Wednesday that it has signed a letter of intent with Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state oil giant, to secure low-carbon ammonia and contribute to the nation’s hydrogen industry. Following last year’s agreement to build a hydrogen supply chain between the two companies, the new partnership aims to confirm their will to support global decarbonization efforts. Under the letter of intent, S-Oil plans to import low-carbon ammonia from Saudi Ar

Oct. 25, 2023

LG Energy Solution ups ante in price war against Chinese rivals

LG Energy Solution plans to boost production of price-competitive electric vehicle batteries -- including lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries -- in a move to expand its footing in the low-cost EV market dominated by Chinese rivals, the company said in its third quarter earnings call on Wednesday. “We plan to launch LFP batteries, and LFMP and manganese-rich batteries in 2026 and 2027, respectively to strengthen our low-priced battery product portfolio,” said Lee Chang-sil, chief f

Oct. 25, 2023

LG Chem sets up R&D center in Georgia

South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said Wednesday that it has set up a new research and development center in the US state of Georgia called the North America Innovation Center, as part of its big push to secure global talent for its burgeoning next-generation materials business. The new plan was unveiled as part of its partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology signed a day before. Under the agreement, the center will serve as an R&D base for diverse collaboration projects with n

Oct. 25, 2023

Hyundai Motor partners with IUCN for forest project in Vietnam

Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday it has partnered with the International Union for Conservation of Nature for a forest restoration project in Vietnam. The company's Vietnamese joint venture HTV and the IUCN, along with Seoul-based development non-governmental organization Good Neighbors International, signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday for the mangrove tree forest project in Ca Mau province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta region. Through the partnership, Hyundai will plant mangrove

Oct. 25, 2023

Business sentiment falls in S. Korea over Middle East tensions: poll

South Korea's business sentiment index fell in November amid concerns that tensions in the Middle East stemming from the Israel-Hamas conflict may add to inflationary pressure and production costs here, a poll showed Wednesday. The business survey index for 364 out of the country's top 600 companies by sales stood at 90.1 for next month, down 0.5 point from October, according to the monthly poll by the Federation of Korean Industries. A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber opti

Oct. 25, 2023

Seoul shares open flat despite US gains

South Korean stocks opened almost flat Wednesday as investors awaited the release of major corporate earnings reports. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 0.69 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,382.82 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, Wall Street ended higher as investors' expectations grew ahead of the release of tech bluechips' earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.62 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.93 percent and the S&

Oct. 25, 2023

Consumer sentiment slides for 3rd month in October amid slowdown woes

South Korea's consumer sentiment slid for the third straight month in October amid woes over an economic slowdown, slumping exports and weakened spending power, a central bank poll showed Wednesday. The composite consumer sentiment index stood at 98.1 in October, down from 99.7 the previous month, marking the lowest since May this year, when the comparable figure was 98, according to the survey conducted by the Bank of Korea. A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists. The cen

Oct. 25, 2023

AI Auction debuts tax consultant chatbot

South Korean software startup AI Auction said Tuesday it has launched a tax consultant chatbot called “K-engine,” specializing in providing verified information on various tax regulations such as property and corporate tax. Unlike OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is trained on freely distributed data online, K-engine is trained with a specialized legal database that has been verified and compiled by legal experts and professors, the company said. As such, the chatbot is expected to rect

Oct. 24, 2023

Seoul shares snap 3-day fall on strong techs, bios; won sharply up

South Korean stocks rose more than 1.1 percent Tuesday to end a three-day losing streak thanks to sharp gains in big-cap tech and bio shares. The local currency gained ground against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 26.49 points, or 1.12 percent, to close at 2,383.51. Trading volume was a little slim at 437.5 million shares worth 7.8 trillion won ($5.8 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 630 to 249. Foreigners dumped a net 154.3 billion won worth of loc

Oct. 24, 2023

KT, Hyundai E&C, Saudi’s STC team up for digital infrastructure

KT Corp. said Tuesday it will establish a digital infrastructure in Saudi Arabia together with Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Saudi Telecommunication Company (Saudi Telecom), in line with the kingdom’s aims to diversify its industry structure under Saudi Vision 2030. KT said that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai E&C and STC Group – the parent organization of Saudi Telecom -- in Riyadh on Monday during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to

Oct. 24, 2023

Samsung Biologics to offer solutions for Kurma Partners' portfolio firms

Samsung Biologics said Tuesday it inked a partnership with Kurma Partners, a French venture capital firm specializing in financing health care companies, to offer a variety of drug-related services to Kurma Partners' portfolio companies. Under the partnership, Samsung Biologics will provide biotech companies invested in by Kurma Partners with its customizable chemical, manufacturing and control solutions. Customizable CMC solutions refer to drugs-related services such as the development of

Oct. 24, 2023

[KH Explains] Samsung-SK rivalry heats up for future chips

Competition is heating up between South Korean chip rivals Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to take the lead in the Compute Express Link, or CXL, technology amid its ongoing High Bandwidth Memory chip supremacy war. Although the market is still at the nascent stage, the two global DRAM leaders are seeing CXL as a potential game changer. CXL is an open, industry-supported interconnect between processors and devices such as accelerators, memory buffers and smart devices. It is considered a key tec

Oct. 24, 2023

Hyundai looks to repeat late founder’s Mideast success with EVs, hydrogen

Hyundai Motor Group is venturing into the Middle East as it explores new business opportunities with cutting-edge technologies in the region, looking to recreate the pioneering legacy of Chung Ju-yung, Hyundai Group’s late founder. During President Yoon Suk Yeol's state visit to the Middle East, the South Korean conglomerate announced a series of agreements and contracts to set up a new manufacturing plant for electric vehicles and cooperate in the eco-friendly energy sector with effo

Oct. 24, 2023

Naver to build digital twin platform for Saudi cities

South Korean internet giant Naver said Tuesday it has secured a large-scale deal in Saudi Arabia to build a cloud-based digital twin platform for the kingdom’s futuristic smart city project. The deal signing ceremony was held in Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday upon President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit. Naver didn’t reveal the exact size of the deal, but the presidential office hinted that it could amount to $100 million. Under the agreement signed with Saudi Arabia’s Mini

Oct. 24, 2023

Coway ramps up environmental protection

South Korean home appliance maker Coway has been expanding its environmental campaigns to promote the culture of everyday environmental protection across the country. In a bid to promote clean water areas, in July it launched its second “Coway River Plogging Campaign,” which involves a combination of running and picking up litter along river and coastal areas, together with its customers and employees for about a month. The campaign saw a 41 percent surge in the number of participant

Oct. 24, 2023