Doosan's nonprofit foundation to sell stake in fuel cell unit

Doosan Group's scholarship foundation signed a deal Tuesday to sell its 3.16 percent stake in Doosan Fuel Cell Co., the fuel cell maker said. The foundation will sell 2.27 million preferred shares in Doosan Fuel Cell after the market closes via a block deal, Doosan Fuel Cell said in a regulatory filing. The stake sale to be made Thursday will lower the interest in Doosan Fuel Cell held by the group's holding company, Doosan Corp., and major shareholders to 50.31 percent from 53.47 percent.

Nov. 3, 2020

Retail industry sees young golfers boost sales

Lee Eun-ji, 28, recently started to take golf lessons. For long, she had thought golf was sports for people her parents’ age, but this year, it came to her as a nice outdoor activity to enjoy, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Frankly, I thought golf would be boring because it looked like a quiet sport. But with COVID-19 keeping me at home, I looked for different outdoor activities and landed at golf,” Lee, an office worker in Seoul told The Korea Herald. Similar to L

Nov. 3, 2020

Contactless payments surge 17% amid pandemic: BOK

Non-face-to-face payments have surged 17 percent on-year since the outbreak of COVID-19, a report released by the central bank on Tuesday showed. Contactless payments made via electronic devices and other noncash methods inched up by 1.4 percent on-year in the first nine months of this year, the Bank of Korea said in a report.　 “Contactless payment transactions have expanded as usage of mobile payments have increased compared with actual credit or debit card payments,” the report

Nov. 3, 2020

LS Cable & System ‘hack-proof’ optical cable

South Korean cable maker LS Cable & Systems said on Tuesday that it is ready to begin the mass production of a new optical cable which can “block out hacking.” Using special fiber optics with enhanced coatings, the company explained the new cable is designed to prevent illegal leaks and disturbance. When an optical cable is bent in the shape of a circle, some of the light traveling along it escapes. Hackers then can steal information by connecting hacking devices and intercepti

Nov. 3, 2020

Sugentech to export coronavirus, flu kits to Europe, US

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Sugentech Inc. said Tuesday it has signed an agreement to export three different types of diagnostic kits for the novel coronavirus and seasonal influenza to the United States and Europe. Under the agreement with Germany-based DiaSys Diagnostic Systems, a total of 200,000 rapid antigen kits by Sugentech to detect the COVID-19 virus will be distributed in Germany. The value of the deal was not revealed. Sugentech's test kit that can detect both the COVID-19 v

Nov. 3, 2020

S. Koreans' time on YouTube up 20% in Sept.: data

South Koreans are estimated to have spent over 50 billion minutes on YouTube in September amid the pandemic, a 20 percent jump from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday. Mobile app tracker Wiseapp said the video streaming application was the application most used by the country's 33.7 million Android smartphone users in September at 53.1 billion minutes, compared with 44.3 billion minutes spent on the app the previous year. Wiseapp said the pandemic likely led to increased use of mobile applica

Nov. 3, 2020

Woori Financial to hold digital training for employees

Woori Financial Group said Tuesday it would implement an employee training program starting this month, to enhance its digital capabilities. For the program, the group will publish storyboards online about how to create digital financial services, make a good use of e-marketing methods and study consumer trends, officials said.  Employees from digital finance units across the banking group’s affiliates -- Woori Bank, Woori Card, Woori Finance Research Institute and Woori FIS, a fina

Nov. 3, 2020

SC Bank launches online sales channel to support social ventures

Standard Chartered Bank Korea said Tuesday it had launched an online sales channel on Naver, South Korea’s biggest search portal, to support social ventures operated by young entrepreneurs.  The lender has partnered with Naver’s donation platform, called “Happybean,” and opened up an online market there, which will be run until Nov. 30.  As of Tuesday, six social enterprises were selling a wide variety of products ranging from food to clothing, while introdu

Nov. 3, 2020

Doosan Infracore produces 200,000th excavator in China

Doosan Infracore Co. said Tuesday its Chinese unit has produced its 200,000th excavator in the country. The accumulated output came 26 years after South Korea's leading construction equipment maker entered the Chinese market in October 1994, the company said in an emailed statement. The Chinese excavator market is expected to grow by 275,000 units this year, surpassing last year's overall sales of 200,000 units, Doosan Infracore said. Sales of excavators by the company rose 21 percent to 14

Nov. 3, 2020

[Contribution] OECD recognizes Korea’s competitiveness in digital government

At the recent e-Leaders 2020 meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Korea ranked first in the Digital Government Index, which the OECD conducted for the first time. The latest result, a consecutive achievement after the OECD ranked Korea first in the OUR (Open-Useful-Reusable) Data Index in 2019, showed that Korea is leading the world’s digital government transition and innovation. The Digital Government Index measures the level of digital transformation an

Nov. 3, 2020

[Monitor] Lee Jae-yong to take father’s crown in stock rich list

Assuming that the Samsung family inherits the shares of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee at the legal ratio (1.5 for wife and 1 for children), his wife Hong earns the largest amount of 5.9 trillion won ($5.2 billion). Each of the three children, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, will inherit 3.9 trillion won. If so, the value of Vice Chairman Lee’s equity holdings will exceed 10 trillion for the first time, and he will be the largest holder of shares in South Korea.

Nov. 3, 2020

Industry ministry to launch new division on future cars

South Korea's industry ministry said Tuesday it will launch a new division under its wing, which will be in charge of spearheading the country's future car sector in line with the country's blueprint on the automobile segment. The new division will also center on developing electric vehicle and hydrogen car-related technologies, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The new body will officially launch Nov. 11. The decision came in line with the country's efforts to foster en

Nov. 3, 2020

Seoul shares open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean shares opened higher Tuesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street ahead of the US presidential election. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 25.83 points, or 1.12 percent, to 2,325.99 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The index rose after a 1.46 percent rally the previous session, hoping that the stocks will advance after the US election on Wednesday (Washington time). The upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting also boosted investor

Nov. 3, 2020

GC Pharma produces more COVID-19 plasma therapy amid growing demand

South Korean biotech company GC Pharma has begun additional production of its plasma therapy treatment for the novel coronavirus amid growing demand for treatment purposes, company officials said Tuesday. The plasma therapy, known as GC5131, is a type of hyperimmune globulin drug that uses blood plasma taken from people who have fully recovered from COVID-19. It is considered one of the earliest treatment options. The treatment candidate is undergoing clinical trials both at home and abroad,

Nov. 3, 2020

S. Korea's H1 exports to China fare relatively well despite pandemic

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea's exports to China fell at a slower rate than its overall overseas shipments in the first half thanks to brisk Chinese demand for consumer goods and electronics parts, a report showed Tuesday. South Korea's exports to the world's second-largest economy came to $61.4 billion in the January-June period, down 6.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the report from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). The decline is much lower tha

Nov. 3, 2020

S. Korea's inflation grows at slowest pace in 4 months in Oct.

South Korea's consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in four months in October due largely to one-off state subsidies for mobile phone bills, data showed Tuesday, underscoring the country's low inflationary pressure. The consumer price index inched up 0.1 percent on-year last month, sharply slowing from a 1 percent on-year gain in the previous month, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the slowest on-year growth since June, when the price index stayed flat, and the fourth

Nov. 3, 2020

S. Korean hospital develops AI-based COVID-19 mortality risk predictor

South Korean researchers developed a machine learning model for predicting a COVID-19 mortality risk in patients at the point of care. The research team at the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital said in Monday’s press release the model was able to estimate poor outcomes in patients with COVID-19 for over 90 percent of the cases. The model, as described in a study published last week on Scientific Reports, is based on 10,237 patients diagnosed here between Jan. 23 and April

Nov. 2, 2020

Economy will recover from fallout, return to normal trajectory in H1 2021: Moon

President Moon Jae-in predicted Monday that South Korea’s economy will be able to return to a normal track in the first half of next year if the current trend of economic rebound from the new coronavirus pandemic continues in the fourth quarter. “When reviewing recent indicators, we can see that the economy is rapidly recovering by overcoming the recent difficulties,” Moon said during a weekly meeting with his senior Cheong Wa Dae aides. “If the trend of economic reboun

Nov. 2, 2020

KRX chief likely to lead insurance association

Korea Exchange Chairman Jung Ji-won has been recommended as the sole candidate to take the helm at the General Insurance Association of Korea, an organization that represents domestic general insurance firms, according to news reports Monday. After reviewing four candidates, who also included Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance CEO Kang Young-gu and former Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairman Yoo Kwan-woo, an eight-member committee under the insurance association chose Jung. The com

Nov. 2, 2020

Seoul jeonse price surges despite tenant protection measures: data

The average price for “jeonse,” one of the most common housing lease systems in Seoul, steeply increased, running counter to the government’s efforts to cool the heated real estate market and protect tenants. The average price of jeonse in the capital city rose by 7.5 percent from 510 million won ($449,000) in August to 536.7 million in October, according to KB Kookmin Bank’s real estate services platform Liiv On. Jeonse refers to a minimum two-year least contract wit

Nov. 2, 2020