Most Popular
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Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
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Over 80,000 millionaires, 20 billionaires in Seoul: report
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Korean battery makers heave sigh of relief over 2-year IRA reprieve
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Young Korean doctors seek plan B: cosmetic dermatology or overseas
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South Korea open to Indonesian proposal to cut KF-21 payments
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Indonesia’s KF-21 fighter jet deal cut back -- what’s next?
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[KH Explains] Can tech firms' AI alliances take on Nvidia?
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Police seek arrest warrant for med student who killed girlfriend
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Local filmmakers criticize ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ monopoly of screens
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Coupang earnings hit hard by losses from ailing Farfetch
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Samsung’s profit surges 12% in Q2 on server demand, premium phone sales
Samsung Electronics logged an operating profit of 14.1 trillion won ($10.77 billion) during the second quarter, up 12.2 percent from the previous year despite rising material prices and recession fears that are weakening consumer demands, the company said Thursday. The South Korean tech giant’s quarterly revenue from April to June came to 77.2 trillion won, up 21.3 percent from a year prior, slightly beating the market consensus of 77 trillion won. The quarterly sales figure was the seco
July 28, 2022
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Seoul shares open higher on eased uncertainty over Fed's rate hikes
South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by a widely expected 0.75 percentage point. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 16.88 points, or 0.7 percent, to trade at 2,432.1 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Wrapping up a two-day meeting, the US central bank on Wednesday (US time) announced a three-quarters of a point rate increase to put its policy rate in a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent, the highest level since 201
July 28, 2022
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Corporate direct financing dips 6.7% in H1 on reduced debt sales
Corporate direct financing in South Korea decreased 6.7 percent on-year in the first half as bond sales plunged amid a sharp increase in market rates, data showed Thursday. Local companies raised a total of 114.5 trillion won ($87.1 billion) by selling stocks and bonds in the January-June period, down 8.24 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets witho
July 28, 2022
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Biz sentiment for July hits 17-month low on inflation, recession woes
South Korea's business sentiment dipped to the lowest in 17 months in July, with companies bracing for rising inflation amid recession woes, a central bank poll showed Thursday. The business sentiment index (BSI) came to 80 for July, down two points from the previous month, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The tally is the lowest reading since 76 in February, 2021. The index measures corporate prospects for business conditions in the following month. A reading below 100 m
July 28, 2022
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New Pyeongtaek base to provide hydrogen for 430,000 vehicles
SEJONG -- A second hydrogen production base in Korea is set to kick off operations in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, next month, to improve the supply volume of energy to vehicle charging stations in Seoul and neighboring cities. The Pyeongtaek base, located at the Asan Industrial Complex, some 60 kilometers south of Seoul, will have the capacity of providing 430,000 hydrogen-fueled vehicles, including commercial ones, with energy per annum, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Ene
July 27, 2022
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Inflation outlook hits all-time high as growth prospects dim
South Koreans expect prices to rise at a record level in the next 12 months and the economy to underperform, a Bank of Korea survey showed Wednesday, as the export-led economy faces shrinking growth over poor exports. In a monthly survey of 2,500 households conducted July 11-18, consumers forecast inflation to average 4.7 percent, hitting its highest level since 2008 when the central bank began releasing the data. The all-time high, up from the previous 3.9 percent in June, also marked the lar
July 27, 2022
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Samsung to help local logic chip designers save prototype costs
Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor chip foundry business looks to help select smaller chip design houses to create prototypes and validate the pre-production concepts of their own chips. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Samsung will offer multi-project wafer shuttle services to five fabless companies -- DeepX, GLS, SKAi Chips, Semibrain and Raontech -- with the government partially subsidizing the program. The five startups were chosen after a monthlong selection process.
July 27, 2022
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Seoul shares up for 3rd day ahead of Fed's rate decision
South Korean stocks advanced for a third straight session on Wednesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve's rate-decision meeting slated for later this week. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) edged up 2.57 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 2,415.53 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 324 million shares worth some 6.9 trillion won (US$5.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 492 to 336. Institutions sold a net 55
July 27, 2022
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Retailers end early-morning deliveries, citing high costs
Despite the pandemic-triggered e-commerce boom, some South Korean retailers have begun shutting down early-morning deliveries, saying that the cutthroat competition for early bird customers has led to increased operating costs. GS Fresh Mall, an online shopping mall under GS Retail Group, said Wednesday it plans to suspend its early-morning delivery service starting July 31. The company said it has decided to stop the service because of the large cost of additional payrolls for couriers, and
July 27, 2022
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Hyundai Motor to join moon surface exploration
Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia signed a joint research agreement Wednesday with six government-funded research institutes that encompass aeronautics and space capabilities to develop mobility for moon surface exploration, the companies said Wednesday. Through this joint research, they will not only develop technologies needed to make mobility for moon surface exploration but also come up with specific strategies and methods to operate such mobility on the harsh environmental and geogr
July 27, 2022
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SK hynix logs record quarterly sales, but to review investment plan
SK hynix on Wednesday reported a record high quarterly sales of 13.81 trillion won ($10.6 billion) from the April to June period, but said it would review next year’s investment plans, citing the global economic uncertainties and weakening market demand. The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker also saw its operating profit increased by 47 percent from the previous quarter to 4.19 trillion won. “Although the prices of DRAM products decreased in the second quarter, the pric
July 27, 2022
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New South Wales PM meets businessmen in Seoul at AustCham event
The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea said Wednesday that it hosted a business breakfast for Dominic Perrotte, premier of New South Wales in Seoul, on Monday. During the event, which was attended by more than 100 senior business representatives, the premier highlighted the importance of South Korea to NSW and provided an economic update of the Australian state to the participating corporate stakeholders. The Premier also highlighted the resilience of NSW‘s economy and delivered a
July 27, 2022
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Coins ‘luna, terraUSD had obvious design flaws’: crypto pioneer
When algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD and its sister luna was introduced in 2018, it was widely touted as “revolutionary.” Now, the algorithmic disaster that has sent shockwaves across the cryptocurrency market was one that was “waiting to happen,” according ethereum founding member and crypto entrepreneur Joel Dietz. “It’s a project that had obvious design flaws,” Dietz told The Korea Herald in an interview conducted by video. “When I saw them
July 27, 2022
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LG Energy Solution raises growth target on upbeat demand
LG Energy Solution on Wednesday announced an upgraded growth plan consisting of a threefold growth in sales and a two-digit operating profit ratio in the next five years. This year’s sales target has also been elevated to 22 trillion won ($17 billion) from 19.2 trillion won. The ambitious plan comes as the world’s second-largest battery maker for electric vehicles reported its second-quarter earnings earlier in the day. In the April-June period, the company posted 5.1 trillion wo
July 27, 2022
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LG Chem to supply cathode active materials to GM for 8 years
South Korean battery material firm LG Chem announced Wednesday plans to supply at least 950,000 tons of cathode active materials used for electric vehicles to General Motors over the next eight years, which would be enough for some 5 million units. Under the long-term supply agreement, LG Chem will supply cathode materials of nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum -- which represent about 40 percent of the cost of a battery cell -- starting the second half of 2022 through 2030. According to
July 27, 2022
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[Newsmaker] SK chief unveils $22b investment plan in meeting with Biden
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Tuesday (US time) announced South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate’s new $22 billion investment plan in the US in his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Biden in return touted SK’s new multi-billion dollar commitment as one of the “most significant investments” ever seen in the US. “We are announcing another $22 billion in new investment in the US,” Chey told the US president. “All this m
July 27, 2022
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LS Cable eyes global undersea cable market
LS Cable & System is expanding investment and tapping into new markets for undersea cables amid a rapidly growing demand for offshore wind power generation, which requires high-quality subsea cables, as countries began executing policies for carbon neutrality. Early this year, LS Cable inked a deal worth 350 billion won ($266 million) to supply undersea cables for wind power in North America. Demand for subsea cables is expected to grow further as US President Joe Biden announced earlier
July 27, 2022
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Number of trading firms hits record high in 2021
The number of trading firms in South Korea touched a fresh all-time high in 2021 on brisk exports and imports, government data showed Wednesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 253,058 trading companies last year, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The value of their trade also spiked 28.1 percent on-year to a new record of $1.23 trillion. The number of exporting companies shrank 2.5 percent on-year to 95,640, but the value of their e
July 27, 2022
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Seoul shares open nearly flat ahead of Fed's rate decision
South Korean stocks opened nearly flat Wednesday as investors took to the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve's rate-decision meeting. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index slipped 0.81 point, or 0.03 percent, to trade at 2,412.15 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The US Fed is set to announce the results of its two-day monetary meeting results Thursday (Korean time). Overnight, the US stock market closed lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.71 percent, an
July 27, 2022
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Assets of 8 key financial groups nearly double over decade
Major financial groups in South Korea have seen their assets almost double over the past decade on the back of their push for business expansion, data showed Wednesday. The country's eight financial groups had 3,221.7 trillion won ($2.46 trillion) as of the end of 2021, up 95 percent from 2012, according to the data from corporate tracker CEO Score. The eight financial groups are KB, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup, Mirae Asset, Meritz and Korea Investment Holdings. In particular, their o
July 27, 2022