Most Popular
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Hyundai Motor eyes 80,000 jobs, W68tr investment at home by 2026
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Dialogue hopes fade as doctors pick hard-liner as new head
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Coupang pledges W3tr to expand Rocket Delivery nationwide by 2027
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[Election Battlefield] Political novice to face off star politician in ‘swing district’
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Korea enters full election mode
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[Kim Seong-kon] The April 2024 election will decide our future
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Seoul’s bus union prepares for strike
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[Hello India] Corporate Korea sees new growth drivers in India
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[Behind the Wheel] Kia’s K8 sporty sedan to challenge Grandeur
In South Korea’s premium luxury sedan market, there is one landmark model that for years has maintained an unrivaled lead -- Hyundai Motor’s Grandeur, which saw 145,000 units sold last year. In a move to grow out of the rivalry frame with the all-time bestseller, Hyundai Motor’s sister brand Kia Corp. has adopted a new strategy, which is to discontinue its semi-large sedan K7 and introduce the K8 as a new, upgraded version to fill in the tier. The all-new K8 also marks the
April 13, 2021
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No Novavax shots until safety proven: government
South Korea has cleared potential roadblocks for the local production of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, but it will have to wait until the drug’s safety is proven, government officials said Tuesday. “We’re not considering putting (Novavax shots) to use prior to the authorization process,” Baek Young-ha, who is in charge of the government’s vaccine procurement, told a press briefing Tuesday. The official also sought to clarify an earlier comment by Health Min
April 13, 2021
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Seoul stocks up for 2nd day on earnings hopes
South Korean stocks rose for the second straight session Tuesday on hopes for better earnings amid a global economic recovery. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 33.49 points, or 1.07 percent, to close at 3,169.08. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth some 16.1 trillion won ($14.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 477 to 358. Foreigners bought a net 445 billion won, while retail investors p
April 13, 2021
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Coupang senior job openings in Singapore spark speculation of foray into Southeast Asia
South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is hiring a small number of employees for senior positions in Singapore, a move that has been seen as part of steps to branch out into the Southeast Asian market. The company recently posted several job openings on global recruiting site Linkedin for its office in Singapore including head of retail, head of logistics and head of operations. It is also hiring a senior front-end engineer for its video streaming platform Coupang Play. A Coupang representati
April 13, 2021
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Korea's crypto investors appear to be shifting toward minor virtual coins
An ample amount of investors appears to be shifting toward other minor coins, market watchers here said on Tuesday, citing a sudden decline of trading volume of Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency. According to Upbit and Bithumb, South Korea’s two leading crypto exchanges, trading volume of Bitcoins fell 40 percent last month from January apparently due to an abrupt surge in the virtual coin. The price of Bitcoin more than doubled from 31.66 million won ($28,000), the lowest point in
April 13, 2021
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Return of short-selling won’t trigger correction: Morgan Stanley
Ahead of the South Korean government implementing a partial reactivation of short selling from May 3, local retail investors have voiced concerns over possible losses in battles with sophisticated hedge funds. The resumption, however, is likely to have a limited impact on the local indexes, global investment bank Morgan Stanley said Tuesday. “We view a sharp market correction as unlikely and expect the Kospi to remain range bound (2,950-3,250),” the report read, adding that the i
April 13, 2021
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South Korean lottery spending up 7.2%
South Korean households spent a monthly average of 7.2 percent more on lottery tickets last year, compared with the previous year, data from the Korean Statistical Information Service showed Tuesday. Korean households each spent a monthly average of 590 won ($0.52) on lottery tickets last year, according to Kosis. The data also took households that didn’t purchase lottery tickets into account, in calculating the average figure. The increase in lottery ticket spending came amid a recor
April 13, 2021
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First CU store in Malaysia hits jackpot with Korean products
The first Malaysian outlet of CU, the South Korean convenience store chain, has seen more than 11,000 customers in just 10 days since opening, the company said Tuesday. According to BGF Retail, the firm behind the CU chain, an average of 1,000 people have visited the store in Kuala Lumpur daily since it opened on April 1. That is about three times the average number of visitors of CU stores in South Korea, the company added. A typical CU store here is open for 24 hours. But the Malaysian st
April 13, 2021
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Samsung expands dominance in smartphone memory market in 2020: report
Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its dominance in the global smartphone memory market in 2020, a report showed Tuesday, as it represented nearly half of the industry. Samsung, the world's largest supplier of DRAM and NAND chips, accounted for 49 percent of the global smartphone memory market last year, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a report from industry tracker Strategy Analytics. Samsung was followed by its smaller South Korean rival SK hynix Inc. with a 21 perce
April 13, 2021
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Consumer financing firms' profit jumps in 2020 on interest income
Consumer financing firms in South Korea saw their combined net profit jump 24.7 percent on-year in 2020, supported by a modest gain in interest income, data showed Tuesday. The combined net profit of 112 credit-specialized financial firms stood at 2.56 trillion won ($2.27 billion) last year compared with a profit of 2.05 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Their interest income rose 2.9 percent on-year to 5.8 trillion won last year,
April 13, 2021
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S. Korea's money supply grows in February
South Korea's money supply continued to grow in February, as loans to households and firms increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Tuesday. The country's M2 stood at 3,274.4 trillion won ($2.9 trillion) as of end-February, up 1.3 percent from a month earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). From a year earlier, M2 jumped 10.7 percent, the BOK said. A key economic indicator closely monitored by authorities, M2 is a measure of the money supply
April 13, 2021
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Samsung, LG among top 5 players in Europe's smart home market in Q4: report
South Korea's two major electronics firms -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- were among the top five players in the European smart home market in the fourth quarter of last year, a report showed Tuesday, as they push to increase connected devices amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend. Samsung was the third-largest vendor of smart home devices, including smart TVs, smart speakers, thermostats and home security products, in Europe after shipping 4.91 million units in th
April 13, 2021
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Q1 auto exports up 17% on increased demand for SUVs, eco-friendly cars
South Korea's exports of automobiles shot up nearly 17 percent in the January-March period from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday, on the back of rising demand for premium automobiles, including SUVs and eco-friendly cars. Outbound shipments of automobiles reached 555,430 units in the first quarter, compared with 475,165 units posted a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In terms of value, exports also jumped 31.5 percent to US$11.9 billion. Exports in Mar
April 13, 2021
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Samsung SDI to supply battery cells to US EV startup Rivian
South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. will supply battery cells for US electric vehicle startup Rivian's upcoming vehicles, the companies said Tuesday. RJ Scaringe of Rivian, backed by Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co., said in a statement Samsung SDI has been developing the battery cells for its vehicles as it plans to launch an electric pickup and SUV later this year. Samsung SDI has been partnering with Rivian for its EV lineup, a company spokesperson said, without elaborating on th
April 13, 2021
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Samsung tipped to ramp up US investment as Biden vows more spending: analysts
Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip producer, is likely to accelerate its investment in the United States as US President Joe Biden urged more spending in the chipmaking sector to resolve the chip shortage and build up a stable supply chain, analysts here said Tuesday. Samsung was one of the 19 global firms and the only South Korean company that attended the White House's virtual meeting on Monday (local time) where Biden stressed a need to invest in the semiconductor indu
April 13, 2021
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SKIET opens 2nd EV battery separator factory in China
SK IE Technology Co. (SKIET), a battery material subsidiary under SK Innovation Co., said Tuesday its second battery separator factory in China started operations to step up its production capacity. SKIET said it opened its first overseas production line in the southeastern Chinese city of Changzhou in November and began rolling out lithium-ion battery separators at its second factory in the complex. The Changzhou factory's operation increases SKIET's annual production capacity to 510 millio
April 13, 2021
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Hyundai unveils all-new minivan Staria
Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker, on Tuesday unveiled the all-new minivan Staria, two days ahead of its domestic sale. The Staria multipurpose vehicle comes with a 2.2-liter diesel engine or a 3.5-liter liquefied petroleum gas engine, Hyundai said in a statement. The Staria is available either as a passenger vehicle or a cargo vehicle. As a passenger vehicle, it comes in three versions with seven seats, nine seats or 11 seats, while as a cargo carrier, it comes with three se
April 13, 2021
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Netflix's 2020 revenue more than doubles in S. Korea
Netflix saw its revenue more than double in South Korea last year as the video streaming giant enjoyed rapid user growth amid the pandemic, its filing showed Tuesday. Netflix Services Korea Ltd.'s sales last year stood at 415.45 billion won ($356 million), up 123.5 percent from the previous year, while operating profit reached 8.82 billion won, up 295 percent over the cited period, according to the filing. Most of the company's sales last year came from user streaming fees, which stood
April 13, 2021
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Samsung maintains 2nd spot in chip revenue behind Intel in 2020: data
Samsung Electronics Co. maintained the status as the world's second-largest semiconductor vendor by revenue last year, industry data showed Tuesday, amid rising demand of memory products on the back of the pandemic-induced stay-at-home economy. Samsung's chip business logged $57.7 billion in revenue last year, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, to capture 12.4 percent of the global semiconductor market, according to data from US-based research firm Gartner. Intel Corp. defended its top pos
April 13, 2021
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[Graphic News] S. Korea 3rd-largest chip materials market in 2020: report
South Korea, home to chipmaking giants such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, was the world's third-largest market for semiconductor materials in 2020, a report showed, moving down one spot from a year earlier after posting an under-par industry average growth. The country's chip materials market grew 3.9 percent on-year to $9.23 billion in 2020, according to the report from SEMI, a global industry association representing companies in the electronics design and manufacturing supply c
April 13, 2021