S. Korean drug firms enjoy bumper year in 2020 despite pandemic

Major South Korean drug and biopharmaceutical companies saw their sales surge in 2020 from a year earlier despite the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Monday. Eleven local pharmaceutical companies in Asia's fourth-largest economy, including Green Cross Corp. and biopharmaceutical behemoth Celltrion Inc., registered sales of more than 1 trillion won ($910 million) last year. The remainder are Kolmar Korea Co., Celltrion Healthcare Co., Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., Yuhan Corp.

Feb. 22, 2021

Foreign investors net-sell S. Korean stocks this year

Foreign investors have remained net sellers of South Korean stocks due to their massive selling of top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Monday. As of Friday, offshore investors had sold a net 5.51 trillion won ($4.99 billion) worth of local stocks during the 33 sessions this year, according to the data from industry sources. Foreigners have been in net-selling mode for the past year, with their net selling amounting to 29.78 trillion won. Their net-selling position this year resulted

Feb. 22, 2021

Posco develops stainless steel for desulfurization facilities

Posco has succeeded in developing core materials used in desulfurization facilities at industrial plants, the country’s largest steelmaker said Sunday. The company said it has developed three types of high-alloy stainless steel that can be used to make absorbers, gas-gas heaters and zero liquid discharge equipment, all of which can help cut sulfur oxide emissions in industrial plants such as steel plants, oil refineries and thermoelectric power plants. The new types of steel are speci

Feb. 21, 2021

Chip shortage only to exacerbate amid complex global issues

The world is undergoing an unprecedented dearth of microchips needed for a wide spectrum of everyday gadgets from gaming consoles, smartphones, tablets and home appliances to TVs, as well as automobiles that are increasingly being electrified. The current chip shortage appears to be the consequence of multiple global issues including the prolonging trade dispute between the United States and China, COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters occurring in regions with large semiconductor production

Feb. 21, 2021

[News Focus] Power struggle? FSC, BOK bicker over revision of payment settlement law

Tensions between the nation’s financial regulator and its central bank are escalating. The two institutions are at odds over which one should hold supervisory authority in the area of online payment settlements, which are emerging as key financial transactions in this era of the digital economy. Payment settlement is the process through which a merchant receives the money that customers have paid for a particular product or service. Responding to increased demand for online payment sett

Feb. 21, 2021

LIG Nex1 heads to IDEX 2021, knocks on Middle East market

LIG Nex1 said Sunday it is participating in the International Defense Exhibition and Conference 2021 to showcase its next-generation defense technologies. According to the South Korean aerospace and defense firm, it will display its medium-range surface-to-air missile M-SAM II, also known as Cheongung II, anti-tank guided missile Raybolt, wearable robot Lexo, unmanned surface vehicle Sea Sword and multipurpose, compact drone systems at the biennial defense expo that kicked off Sunday in Abu

Feb. 21, 2021

[News Focus] Call for transparency as gamers take issue with real odds of ‘random’ items

Last week, Nexon apologized for misleading users of the odds of receiving different types of probability-based items inside its fantasy adventure PC game MapleStory, becoming the first company here to admit that those “random” items have a preset draw probability. In an apology posted Friday on MapleStory’s official website, Nexon director Kang Won-ki said a misunderstanding occurred due to different interpretations of the word “random.” The company has used the

Feb. 21, 2021

Citigroup may divest Korean banking subsidiary

Citigroup has been mulling divestiture of its South Korean banking subsidiary, among other international consumer units, but is treading cautiously, reports and statements released as of Sunday showed. According to Bloomberg Law on Friday, the New York-based multinational banking giant has been considering divesting units tied to retail banking across the Asia-Pacific region, including those in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. The reports precede the rise of Citigroup’s in

Feb. 21, 2021

South Korean unicorns take big leap with greater global presence

Going global has been a long shot for many South Korean startups despite their advanced services and products. But planned stock listings and mergers and acquisitions of Korean unicorns, including those for Coupang, Woowa Brothers and Hyperconnect, are raising expectations for local companies to grow their international reach. “The series of recent megadeals made in the startup sector here have moved the value of the entire Korean ecosystem up a notch,” said Lim Jung-wook, chief o

Feb. 21, 2021

Samsung Display joins responsible business alliance

Samsung Display’s chief executive officer Choi Joo-sun is aiming to further embolden the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG)　involvement beginning this year. As part of this drive, the company announced Sunday that it joined the Responsible Business Alliance. The RBA is an international industry coalition that holds its members accountable to a code of conduct that aspires for a higher level of corporate ethics. More than 160 global companies are its members, inclu

Feb. 21, 2021

Brokerages rake in record-high credit loan interest of W1tr in 2020

South Korean securities firms generated nearly 1 trillion won ($904 million) worth of profit from interest paid by individuals who borrowed money to invest in stocks last year, according to data provided by the Korea Financial Investment Association Sunday. The combined interest on credit-based loans that 57 local brokerage houses collected from retail traders came to 997 billion won in 2020, having soared 33.4 percent on-year. It was also a fresh new high since the association began collecting

Feb. 21, 2021

Airlines to retain air traffic rights without flying

The government is poised to further extend the period when airlines can suspend flights without losing their air traffic rights for the routes, as the pandemic continues to affect the aviation industry. According to sources close to the matter, the new extension is currently being “positively considered,” as the current extension comes to an end next month. “Given the prolonged pandemic, the measure is being positively considered to help support airlines,” one Transport

Feb. 21, 2021

Bitcoin is now worth more than its weight in gold

The price of Bitcoin surged to another record high over the weekend, becoming more expensive than 1 kilogram of gold. The digital coin was being traded for more than 65 million won ($58,800) as of Sunday morning, data from crypto exchange Upbit showed. Bitcoin’s rally came as domestic gold prices recently declined to hit a new 10-month low. Gold, which has long been a safe haven asset both in Korea and worldwide, stood at 62,967 won per 1 gram as of Friday. The largest cryptocurrency&

Feb. 21, 2021

2 concrete pipe producers fined W313m over price collusion

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Sunday it has decided to fine two small concrete pipe producers a combined 313 million won ($282,000) for colluding to fix prices of industrial pipes. Buyang Industry Co. and Shinhung Hume Pipe Co. colluded to fix their quotations between  2012 and 2016 for 38 rounds of concrete pipe purchase bidding put forward by government agencies and public firms, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KTFC). The deals were worth an estimated 10.6 billion

Feb. 21, 2021

Imprisoned Samsung heir likely to be dismissed as welfare foundation chief

Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Samsung Group, is expected to be dismissed as head of a social welfare foundation established by his late father, as he is imprisoned over a high-profile bribery case, sources said Sunday. Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation is expected to hold a board meeting next month to decide whether to strip him of the chairmanship of the foundation, according to sources at the Seoul city government and the Yongsan Ward office. Last month, Lee was sentenced to two an

Feb. 21, 2021

Cargo handling at seaports down 1.6% in Jan.

The amount of cargo processed at South Korea's seaports moved down 1.6 percent in January from a year earlier amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Sunday. The volume of cargo handled at local sea ports came to 128.9 million tons last month, compared with 131 million tons posted a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Handling of export-import cargo also shrank 1 percent on-year to 111.1 million tons last month. The ministry attributed

Feb. 21, 2021

Retail investors pare down net stock buying in Feb.

South Korean retail investors pared down their net buying of local stocks in February as the country's key stock index traded in a tight range following a bull run, data showed Sunday. Retail investors snapped up a net 5.8 trillion won ($5.24 billion) worth of stocks on the main and secondary markets during 13 trading sessions ending on Feb. 19, compared with a net purchase of 25.8 trillion won in January, according to the bourse operator Korea Exchange. Compared with a month earlier, their ne

Feb. 21, 2021

Homegrown app market draws spotlight as alternative to Google's Play store

South Korea's app market ONE store has drawn attention as a possible alternative to Google's Play store as local app developers worry about increasing costs over the US tech giant's decision to expand its 30 percent commission fee to all in-app digital goods purchases later this year. ONE store, a subsidiary of top wireless carrier SK Telecom Co., launched the app market in 2016 as a smaller rival to the Play store on Google's Android operating system. The app market has since steadily grown,

Feb. 21, 2021

Celltrion to supply antibody treatment for COVID-19 without profit margin in Korea: chairman

South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion will supply its antibody treatment for COVID-19 without a profit margin in South Korea, its chairman has said. Celltrion’s CT-P59 won the South Korean drug safety agency’s conditional approval earlier this month, becoming the first locally made treatment for the virus. The drug began to be supplied to local medical institutions Wednesday. CT-P59 is administered to COVID-19 patients at higher risk, referring to people aged 60 and olde

Feb. 20, 2021

BlackRock emerges as Kakao’s 5th-largest shareholder

US-based international investment manager BlackRock became a blockholder of South Korea’s internet giant Kakao, in an apparent bet on the corporation behind Korea’s most popular messenger app, a filing showed Friday. The US investor’s subsidiary BlackRock Fund Advisors and its 13 affiliates have spent 986.4 billion won ($891.9 million) to obtain 5.18 percent of common shares in Kakao as of Monday, according to the filing. As a result, BlackRock is expected to become the fif

Feb. 19, 2021