Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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'Korean economy may lose steam due to household debts'
South Korea’s economy will grow 3.9 percent this year, an Asian regional macroeconomic surveillance organization said Monday, presenting a more pessimistic outlook than what the government forecast citing growing household debts. The ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office said Asia’s fourth-largest economy continues its strong rebound in 2021 buoyed by a sustained global recovery and robust demand for electronics and autos. But it warned that the country’s growing household d
Aug. 23, 2021
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Samsung, SK hynix face mixed outlooks for DRAM chips
Last week, foreign investors sold a net 6.3 trillion won ($5.36 billion) worth of Samsung Electronics shares and 2.4 trillion won of SK hynix shares on the local stock market, amid concerns about a drop in DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips in the coming months. The continued sell-offs of Samsung and SK hynix by foreign investors weakened their share prices. Samsung’s share price ended at 72,500 won Friday, down 12.9 percent from a recent high of 83,300 won recorded on Aug. 5.
Aug. 23, 2021
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Celltrion’s anti-COVID drug set for US, EU rollout: report
Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody treatment, the world’s third therapy to be developed for the coronavirus, is likely to enter the US and European markets later this year, a local brokerage said in a report Monday. According to Lee Dong-geon of Shinhan Investment, the South Korean pharmaceutical firm is likely to soon apply for the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for Regkirona, or CT-P59, based on the advisory meetings that the firm previously had w
Aug. 23, 2021
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HMM's sailors vote in favor of first-ever strike
Unionized sailors and other sea-based workers of South Korea's largest shipper HMM Co. have voted in favor of staging their first-ever strike after wage negotiations with the company reached a deadlock, industry sources said Monday. Around 92 percent of the seafarers who have participated in the vote supported the proposed walkout, and they plan to hand in letters of resignation to the management Wednesday, according to the sources. The union added it is still open to reach a last-minute agree
Aug. 23, 2021
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Seoul stocks rise nearly 1% on strong exports, eased tapering woes
South Korean stocks steeply rebounded Monday, rising nearly 1 percent, helped by robust economic data and easing concerns about the US Fed's tapering timeline. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) advanced 29.7 points, or 0.97 percent, to close at 3,090.21 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 564 million shares worth some 13.2 trillion won ($11.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 788 to 94. Foreigners sold a net 31 bi
Aug. 23, 2021
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Workforce aging could hurt Korea’s manufacturing: report
A rapidly aging population is a cause of great concern for South Korea already, but a report released Monday gave another reason to worry about: It would hurt the locomotive of the local economy -- manufacturing. According to the Seoul-based Korea Economic Research Institute, the sector will suffer a severe blow from the graying of the workforce. Its analysis of the demographic trends of the manufacturing workforce over the last 10 years shows that the proportion of workers in their 50s and a
Aug. 23, 2021
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Samsung Bioepis gets nod for sale of ophthalmology biosimilar drug in Europe
South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Samsung Bioepis Co. said Monday it has won approval from European authorities for the sale of its ophthalmology biosimilar, Byooviz. The European Commission granted the marketing authorization on ranibizumab biosimilar, previously known as SB11, which references Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis' blockbuster medication Lucentis. It is the first biosimilar referencing Lucentis to be commercialized in the European Union. The Novartis product registered $1.93
Aug. 23, 2021
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LG Chem's shares tumble on GM EV recall
Shares of South Korean chemical firm LG Chem Ltd. plunged in the Seoul bourse Monday, following American automaker General Motors' decision to additionally recall Bolt electric vehicles equipped with its subsidiary's batteries over fire risks. LG Chem, which wholly owns battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd., saw its shares tumble about 10 percent as of 2 p.m., after GM said Friday it will recall about 73,000 Bolt EVs from model years 2019 through 2022, which is expected to cost about US$1 billi
Aug. 23, 2021
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Bottom 20% hit hardest by food price hikes
Soaring food prices have pushed South Korea’s low-income families to spend more on food, fueling an increase in the number of households running a deficit, data showed Monday. According to data from the Korean Statistical Information Service, monthly expenditures on food and nonalcoholic beverages by households in the lowest income quintile, or the bottom 20 percent, stood at 244,000 won ($208) on average, during the second fiscal quarter, up 12 percent from a year earlier.
Aug. 23, 2021
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Yanolja wins suit against rival over data theft
Accommodation booking app Yanolja won a compensation suit it filed against a local rival for stealing confidential company information, according to a regional court Monday. The Seoul Central District Court ordered Good Choice Company, the firm behind the accommodation booking platform of the same name, to pay 1 billion won ($852,300) to Yanolja as compensation for its theft of Yanolja’s business data. The court said Good Choice gained profit from using information gathered from Yanol
Aug. 23, 2021
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Google or Apple? ONE Store emerges as cheaper 3rd option
South Korea’s own app market operator ONE Store said Monday it will go global in 2022 and challenge the dual hegemony of Google and Apple by charging commissions up to one-third cheaper. During an online press conference, CEO Lee Jae-hwan announced that the firm has teamed up with Blizzard, Microsoft and Tencent to expand beyond the Korean market and launch a global version of the ONE Store in 2022. “Due to the recent monopoly issue in the app market, ONE Store is getting incre
Aug. 23, 2021
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Han Sung Motor donates Dream Gream online store profits to youth shelters
Han Sung Motor has donated 20 million won ($17,028) earned from running Dream Gream online merch store and more to 10 youth shelters around the country, the official Mercedes-Benz dealer said Monday. The auto dealership opened the online store offering merchandise made by students participating in its Dream Gream art scholarship program in June. As part of its social outreach efforts, Han Sung Motor has been supporting middle and high school students with artistic talents through the progra
Aug. 23, 2021
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Market in wait-and-see mode over BOK’s rate-setting, US Fed meeting
With South Korea’s benchmark Kospi plunging below the 3,100-point level last week over the US tapering jitters, the market is closely watching the outcomes of the upcoming monetary meetings at the Korean central bank and the US Federal Reserve this week. The Bank of Korea is widely expected to raise its key rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 percent after its upcoming rate-setting meeting on Thursday. The decision will be undertaken in an effort by the central bank to maintain financial stab
Aug. 23, 2021
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S. Korea receives additional reserve assets from IMF under SDRs allocation
South Korea said Monday it has received Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth of some $11.7 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in line with the international organization's move to allocate its new asset reserves to member countries. In early August, the board of IMF governors approved a $650 billion expansion of its reserve assets, called SDRs, to allocate to IMF member countries in accordance with their existing quotas. The move is aimed at helping countries cope with the fallo
Aug. 23, 2021
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More Kospi200 firms set up ESG committees
Almost 40 percent of South Korea’s top 200 listed companies have established committees to deal with environmental, social and corporate governance issues, with a majority of them having caught on to the trend this year, a report from consulting firm Samjong KPMG showed Monday. Out of the Kospi200 companies, which make up 93 percent of the total market of the country’s main bourse, 76 companies or 38 percent have set up ESG committees, including one that has two councils. Out of t
Aug. 23, 2021
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PH129 claims most expensive apartment in S. Korea
The most expensive apartment sold this year was in The Penthouse Cheongdam, a luxurious residence also known as PH129, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed on Monday. One unit with an exclusive use area of 273.96 square meters on the 14th floor of the 20-floor building was sold for 11.5 billion won ($9.79 million) in March. Another unit of the same size on the sixth floor was traded at 10 billion won. The apartment, located in southern Seoul‘s Gangnam Dis
Aug. 23, 2021
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Samsung Electro-Mechanics retries to sell Wi-Fi module biz
Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., a major electronics parts maker in South Korea, is seeking to sell its Wi-Fi module business again, a company official said Monday, after its previous deal collapsed in May. "We are in talks with a potential buyer over the sale of our Wi-Fi module business," the official said on condition of anonymity. "The Wi-Fi module business is operating normally. So far, nothing has been confirmed about the deal." Samsung Electro-Mechanics reportedly put
Aug. 23, 2021
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Un-real estate: Young Koreans look to make real money from virtual land
Park Seol-min, 28, half-jokingly tells his friends that he bought a 10-square-meter plot in the wealthy Gangnam area of Seoul for less than 40,000 won ($34). As you might expect, given that apartments in the area trade for more than 30 million won per square meter, there’s a catch: The plot only exists in a virtual, computerized world. Park is one of a growing number of “virtual homeowners,” who spend real money on real estate in metaverse platforms such as Earth 2, w
Aug. 23, 2021
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Hyundai slips to 6th place in global EV market in H1: data
South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co.'s electric vehicle (EV) sales increased in the first half of the year compared with a year ago, but its global market share fell in the face of toughening competitions with Chinese rivals, industry data showed Monday. Hyundai Motor was in sixth place in terms of global EVs sales in the January-June period, one notch down from the fifth position a year ago, according to the data by industry tracker SNE Research. The automaker's global EV sales jumped 75.
Aug. 23, 2021
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Manufacturing sentiment drops for 5th month in August: poll
South Korean manufacturers' business confidence fell for the fifth consecutive month in August due to the economic fallout from the prolonged virus pandemic, a poll showed Monday. The country's professional survey index (PSI) for the manufacturing sector's business conditions came to 109 this month, down from 114 in July, according to the poll carried out by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET). A PSI reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists. The survey
Aug. 23, 2021