Doosan Heavy teams up with SK Engineering on floating wind farm

South Korean power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday that it will team up with local builder SK Engineering Construction Co. to develop floating wind farms. SK Engineering will carry out a project to develop the floating wind farm, while Doosan Heavy will provide technologies for key equipment of the farm, the power plant builder said in an emailed statement. In July, the government said it plans to start building the floating offshore wind farm to ge

Nov. 19, 2020

Seoul to supply more public homes to tackle rental home shortage

South Korea will supply 114,000 public 'jeonse' houses by 2022 to help tackle a shortage of the two-year contract-based rental homes, the transport ministry said Thursday. The government plans to purchase existing homes to convert them into public jeonse houses mainly for the underprivileged who have difficulties in finding such homes, as higher demand has pushed up jeonse prices amid low rates and a recently passed related bill, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a stat

Nov. 19, 2020

[Graphic News] Exports of instant noodle, kimchi on rise amid pandemic

　South Korea’s exports of instant noodles and kimchi products rose sharply in the first nine months of the year on the back of rising demand for ready-to-eat meals and healthy foodstuffs amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. 　Outbound shipments of instant noodles jumped 36.3 percent on-year to $456 million during the January-September period, while those of kimchi jumped 38.5 percent to $109 million over the cited period, according to the data compiled by the Ministry

Nov. 19, 2020

Seoul stocks open lower on valuation pressure, virus concerns

South Korean stocks opened lower Thursday after hitting a nearly three-year high the previous session, as valuation pressure and concerns of surging COVID-19 cases offset vaccine hopes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 12.41 points, or 0.49 percent, to 2,533.23 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks fell after hitting a 33-month high in the previous session. Investor wariness increased on valuation pressure and rising coronavirus cases. Market kingpin Samsung

Nov. 19, 2020

Won sinks after verbal warning against rapid gains

The South Korean currency dropped against the US dollar Thursday after currency authorities warned that they are ready to take actions at any time to curb the won's sharp gains. The local currency ended at 1,115.6 won to the greenback, down 11.8 won from the previous session, when the won rose to a 29-month high of 1,103.8 to the dollar. Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said that FX authorities are closely monitoring the market, warning that excessive currency volatility is not

Nov. 19, 2020

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine 95% effective in its last-stage trial

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidate was 95 percent effective during its last-stage trial, Reuters reported Wednesday, adding that the drugmaker will soon apply for emergency authorization in the United States. Reuters said that the efficacy of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNtech was consistent across age and ethnicity demographics, meaning that the drug could be used to boost immunization broadly for people across the globe. No major side effects were reported

Nov. 18, 2020

Apple to reduce app store commission for small developers

Apple Inc. said Wednesday that it will reduce the standard commission from 30 percent to 15 percent for small-sized app developers at its app store starting next year. Apple currently takes a 30-percent cut of the developers' revenue when iPhone or iPad users make purchases. Virtually all in-app purchases are subject to the fees. According to a new program to be adopted on Jan. 1 next year, Apple will only charge a 15-percent fee on app developers with annual revenue less than $1 million

Nov. 18, 2020

CJ Logistics introduces electric trucks in local industry first

CJ Logistics said Wednesday it will introduce electric trucks to replace its diesel vehicles, for the first time in the Korean logistics industry. The company said it will introduce 1-ton electric freight vehicles and also start a new business installing EV charging stations for the trucks. To begin, the company said it will operate two electric trucks each in two sub-terminals in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, and Ulsan. Marking the introduction of the electric vehicles, CJ Logistics held an ope

Nov. 18, 2020

Korea plans up to W10tr investment for biohealth by 2023

South Korea’s newfound focus on the bio industry is only anticipated to further concentrate on the heel of announcements made Wednesday by the nation’s leading biologics companies that they will invest hundreds of billions of won to building additional plants in the bio cluster city of Songdo, Incheon. Samsung Biologics will pour 1.7 trillion won ($1.54 billion) into its new Plant 4, and Celltrion 500 billion won to its Global Life Science Research Lab and Plant 3. The Government al

Nov. 18, 2020

Kakao sets new standards for digital wallet

Kakao said Wednesday that it would add a digital wallet feature to South Korea’s largest messenger application KakaoTalk. The company will also start introducing new subscription-based services via the messenger application. Kakao’s co-CEOs Yeo Min-su and Cho Soo-yong introduced new features that are to be added to KakaoTalk during an online press conference held as part of the company’s annual conference, which runs from Wednesday to Friday. The digital wallet feature woul

Nov. 18, 2020

Growth rate of pay TV subscriber slow

The growth rate of pay TV subscribers in South Korea has slowed this year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The number of new pay TV subscribers during the first half this year reached around 350,000, down by 220,000 compared to that of last year, marking the lowest increase in three years, the report said. In the first half of 2017, the number of new pay TV subscribers reached 830,000. The figure increased to 910,000 in the second half in 2017. I

Nov. 18, 2020

SKT CEO pushes ahead with remote working

SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho said Wednesday that the company will allow its employees to work from anywhere. “We need to study how we can improve the ways in which we communicate while working since it is not possible to fully return to the ways we did before (the coronavirus),“ he said. The CEO said the company will try many different solutions, utilizing its data and technology to change the company’s work environment. SKT will increase its number of regional offices, whi

Nov. 18, 2020

GS Caltex gas stations evolve under new brand ‘Energy Plus’

GS Caltex on Wednesday launched its new brand, Energy Plus, to roll out a new type of gas station that can function conventionally and serve as a mobility and logistics hub. According to the South Korean refinery, the company opened Energy Plus Hub in Seocho-gu, Seoul, as the first pump station under the new brand Energy Plus, which can charge electric and hydrogen vehicles and serve as a car-sharing platform and logistics hub for drone shipping. “GS Caltex will continue to transform

Nov. 18, 2020

Netmarble seeks turnaround with newly released Seven Knights 2

Netmarble on Wednesday launched its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Seven Knights 2 in Korea, drawing attention to whether the much-anticipated game will be able to compensate for the company’s lackluster performance in the third quarter. As a sequel of Seven Knights, launched in 2014, Seven Knights 2 continues on the plot lines of the previous work and offers a story that players can consume like a movie. The mobile MMORPG showcases 46 heroes, and players control a gro

Nov. 18, 2020

[Feature] Can Korea handle COVID-19 vaccines?

While the development of COVID-19 vaccines makes the need to store vaccines at low temperatures increasingly urgent, South Korea is proving to be less than prepared. The new vaccines from US companies Pfizer and Moderna are based on messenger RNA (mRNA), and as a result, need to be stored at low temperatures -- minus 70 degrees Celsius for Pfizer’s and minus 20 degrees Celsius for Moderna’s.  When the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Korea Disease Control and Prevention A

Nov. 18, 2020

Seoul stocks hit nearly 3-year high; Korean won at 29-month high

South Korean shares hit the highest in 33 months Wednesday on a rally in bio stocks amid concerns over a flare-up of new coronavirus outbreaks. The Korean won surged to a 29-month high against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 6.49 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 2,545.64. The reading marks the highest closing since 2,568.54 points on Feb. 1, 2018. Trading volume was moderate at about 911 million shares worth some 13.3 trillion won ($12 billion),

Nov. 18, 2020

FSC, BOK feud over e-payment settlement supervisory power

The financial regulator’s latest move to introduce regulations on the payment settlement system is facing a backlash from the industry, and especially the central bank. The trigger was the revision bill of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, drafted by the Financial Services Commission and submitted to Rep. Youn Kwan-suk of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who chairs the parliamentary National Policy Committee. The bill includes e-payment business deregulations for big te

Nov. 18, 2020

Economic recovery in Asia-Pacific region to be driven by private consumption: Morgan Stanley

Buoyed by the progress of coronavirus vaccine development and monetary easing policies, expectations are on the rise that the global economy can get itself out of the virus crisis soon. The Asia-Pacific region is predicted to post 9 percent growth in its domestic production rate in 2021, and the robust on-year growth will be driven mainly by a strong recovery in private consumption, according to an Asian branch of investment bank Morgan Stanley on Wednesday. “Private consumption could em

Nov. 18, 2020

Shinhan Bank set to bring together finance, retail, telecom with ‘MyData’

  Starting next year, financial consumers will be able to manage their banking histories, shopping patterns at beauty stores as well as cellphone data usage via a single digital platform. Shinhan Bank said Wednesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with CJ Olive Networks, an online retail arm of CJ Group and Korean mobile carrier LG U+ in order to jointly set up a digital platform for MyData services, the bank said.  MyData is a government-led business model that collect

Nov. 18, 2020

Hanjin chief defends merger amid criticism

Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae said Wednesday that the merger of the nation’s two largest carriers, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, will not lead to price hikes or workforce restructuring. After attending the Korea-US Business Meeting at the Federation of Korean Industries in Seoul, Cho told reporters, “There may be concerns about such a (monopoly),” but “there will be no (lower) customer convenience or price hikes.” Regarding the restructuring of the workfor

Nov. 18, 2020