Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, has been tentatively promoted to the group’s vice chairman as he is expected to take on a bigger role in the group’s management, Hanwha Group said Monday. The decision came about a year after the 38-year-old became the CEO of Hanwha Solutions, the group’s company with business areas in multinational energy services, petrochemical and real estate in September 2021. According to the announcement, Kim has a

Industry Aug. 29, 2022

Data from market intelligence firm FnGuide showed Monday that 885 officials at companies listed on the Korean stock market were paid 500 million won ($370,000) or higher in the first half of this year, up 13.3 percent from 781 people in the same period last year. According to FnGuide’s data, the total amount of the officials’ remuneration logged 1.23 trillion won, a 5.2 percent increase on year. About 57.1 percent of the officials were paid between 500 million won and 1 billion won

Industry Aug. 29, 2022

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth largest conglomerate, has decided to donate 14 billion won ($10.4 million) to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for various research and development efforts, officials said Monday. The announcement came about half a year after Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin met KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung at the university in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province, in February. According to the officials, Lotte Group’s 10 subsidiaries inc

Technology Aug. 29, 2022

Amid the importance of renewable electricity highlighted in global supply chains, 28.8 percent of large South Korean manufacturers are facing pressure from global buyers to use renewable energy in the production process, a survey from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed Sunday. Regarding the requested timeline by the global buyers, the survey showed that 33.3 percent of South Korean manufacturers were asked to use renewable energy by 2025 while 9.5 percent of foreign companies de

Industry Aug. 28, 2022

Apple Maps, iPhone’s built-in map application, was found to have no labeling of the Dokdo islets in over 20 countries across the world, a South Korean professor claimed on Thursday. Seo Kyoung-duk, a general education professor at Sungshin Women’s University, wrote in a post on his social media accounts that iPhone’s built-in map application in 22 countries had no recognition of South Korea’s easternmost islets, citing his social media followers as sources. The list of

Technology Aug. 25, 2022

The amount of tweets related to Korean content has grown 546 percent over the past 10 years, according to Twitter. “K-content’s growth on Twitter follows the explosive growth pattern of K-pop,” said Kim Yeong-jeong, Twitter’s head of global K-pop and K-contents partnership, Tuesday at the Content Marketing Summit 2022 held at the InterContinental Hotel in Seoul. “Twitter‘s strength, which allowed K-pop to expand its reach over the past few years, is expect

Technology Aug. 24, 2022

Lotte Chemical has emerged as the sole bidder in the sale of South Korea’s second-largest copper foil manufacturer Iljin Materials, according to a local report Wednesday. Global private equity fund operators and foreign strategic investors have pulled out during the bidding process due to Iljin Materials’ high prices and rate hikes, leaving Lotte Chemical as the only bidder, the Herald Business said in an exclusive report, citing investment bank sources. Lotte Chemical on Monday c

Market Aug. 24, 2022

SK Networks has invested 4 billion won ($3 million) in Com2Verse, a metaverse-specialized subsidiary of South Korean game developer Com2uS, to explore business opportunities in the world of metaverse, officials said Tuesday. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to join forces in setting up and strengthening a metaverse ecosystem. The signing ceremony took place in the Com2Verse metaverse platform’s virtual auditorium on the previous day. According to officials, SK Net

Market Aug. 23, 2022

Celltrion has opened a research and development office in Boston to speed up its new drug development efforts in the US while seeking and boosting cooperation with other firms, company officials said Monday. According to company officials, the South Korean biopharmaceutical giant completed the establishment of the Boston office earlier this year. The new US office has been exploring the biotechnology industry’s trends while gathering information on startups and pipelines with investment

Technology Aug. 22, 2022

Naver has become the first South Korean information technology company to join the global RE100 renewable energy initiative to achieve carbon neutrality, the firm said Monday. The RE100 initiative, which is led by the Climate Group in partnership with CDP -- formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project -- commits members to using 100 percent renewable electricity. Naver said it plans to initiate its “2040 Carbon Negative” roadmap, which was established last year, to meet the goal

Technology Aug. 22, 2022

Samsung Life Science Fund has invested $15 million in US biotech Senda Biosciences in efforts to foster core technology of next-generation biopharmaceuticals, Samsung Biologics said Wednesday. Senda Biosciences is a therapeutics platform company specialized in programming to the cell by using the code from natural nanoparticles. The US biotech’s platform includes a messenger RNA engine and the first-ever atlas of nature-derived programmable systems at the molecular level and across all k

Market Aug. 17, 2022

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has developed core equipment required for the ground testing of NASA’s future space observatory project, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday. The state-run KASI has put together a cryogenic vacuum chamber for NASA’s project -- Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, also known as SPHEREx. If successful, the project will mark the world’s first observation of the entir

Technology Aug. 17, 2022

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won discussed shared commitments to global health with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Foundation, SK Bioscience said Wednesday. According to officials, SK Discovery Executive Vice Chairman Chey Chang-won and SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong also attended the meeting in Yeouido, western Seoul. The SK leaders and Gates talked about how they can cooperate to improve global health. SK Bioscience said the company and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hav

Industry Aug. 16, 2022

SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, has invested $250 million in Bill Gates’ small nuclear power reactor developer TerraPower in an effort to cut down global carbon emissions and build up the group’s green energy portfolio, officials said Monday. According to the group’s announcement, SK Inc. and SK Innovation became co-lead investors of TerraPower’s investment attraction plan worth $750 million along with Gates. The Korean companies’ i

Industry Aug. 15, 2022

Samsung Electronics executive vice president Yang Tae-jong said the IT giant’s newest smart wearable device -- Galaxy Watch5 series -- offers the world’s most advanced sleep-tracking technology in a press conference held Thursday in New York, a day after the Galaxy Unpacked August 2022 event. “Galaxy Watch5 is loaded with various technologies including an innovative bioactive sensor that can measure biometrics to help (users) stay healthy. Galaxy Watch5 will be the best partn

Technology Aug. 15, 2022