May 13, 2024

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EDITOR'S PICKS

• Companies 
  

  China’s AliExpress, Temu sign rare pact in Korea to ensure product safety

  Chinese e-commerce giants AliExpress and Temu signed a product safety agreement with Korea's Fair Trade Commission on Monday in the hopes of ensuring and protecting Korean consumers from harmful products being distributed and sold here through their platforms. The agreement marks the first of its kind signed by an overseas online platform operator in Korea regarding product safety. Particularly, Temu's involvement is noteworthy as this is the first time the company signed such an agreement wit

• Markets 
  

  K bank racks up record earnings ahead of market debut

  South Korea's internet-only lender, K bank, witnessed a significant improvement in its earnings as it gears up for its market debut this year. The bank announced Monday that its net profit in the first quarter surged nearly fivefold to 50.7 billion won ($37 million), from 10.4 billion won in the same period last year, reaching a new quarterly high. The bank stated the record performance results from a balanced growth in both deposit and loan balances, which increased by 25.7 percent and 6.6 p

• Companies 
  

  Yuhan-Kimberly’s reforestation campaign marks 40th year

  Yuhan-Kimberly announced Monday that its long-standing forest conservation campaign "Keep Korea Green" has reached its 40th anniversary this year. Originating in 1984, the campaign has evolved into a corporate social responsibility model rooted in cooperative governance, driving both societal and corporate development. Marking the campaign's 40th anniversary, Yuhan-Kimberly announced its achievements so far. Through the campaign, Yuhan-Kimberly has planted over 57 million trees acro

• Markets 
  

  Woori Financial ready to bulk up

  South Korean financial services conglomerate Woori Financial Group is seeking to diversify its business portfolio beyond banking in an apparent move to take on its bigger rivals here. Among the nation’s top four financial groups, Woori has long remained the smallest in terms of sales. Last year, Woori was the only one to post less than 3 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in earnings, with its net profit standing at 2.51 trillion won. KB, the No. 1 financial group, recorded 4.63 trillion won i

• Tech 
  

  SK Telecom to lead AI data center standardization

  SK Telecom said Monday that their proposal for standardizing industry-wide technologies for AI data centers has recently been approved as a new research project by a UN telecom agency. The ITU-T, a division of the UN-affiliated International Telecommunication Union, is responsible for studying and establishing electrical and telecom standards, with over 900 entities from around 190 member countries joining. "The ITU-T's endorsement of our new standardization project not only underscores

• Startups 
  

  Toss Securities logs record quarterly profit in Q1

  Toss Securities, the online-only brokerage arm of Korean fintech giant Viva Republica, continues its upward trajectory, marking a significant milestone with its highest-ever quarterly net profit in the first quarter. The company announced Monday that its net profit soared to a record 11.9 billion won ($8.7 million) in the first quarter, rebounding from a net loss of 400 million won in the same period last year. This figure is equivalent to eight times the annual net profit of 1.5 billion won

• Tech 
  

  LG Innotek to spur growth in automotive lighting

  LG Innotek on Monday renewed its commitment to nurturing the automotive lighting business as its key growth driver. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the commercialization of Nexlide, the parts maker’s flexible three-dimensional lighting brand for vehicles. The module-based lighting products boast brighter, clearer and more uniform light emission. Starting with the Nexlide-A in 2014, the Nexlide-M began mass production in the first quarter of this year. A total of nine types of Ne

• Companies 
  

  [KH Explains] Hyundai Motor’s plan for new landmark keeps hitting bumps

  Hyundai Motor Group’s plan to build a new headquarters called Global Business Center, or GBC, as a landmark in southern Seoul still faces bumps after having already undergone decade-long obstacles as it continues struggling with the Soul Metropolitan Government to find common ground on height. The dispute was recently reignited when it was reported that the Seoul Metropolitan Government intended to reject Hyundai Motor’s new plan to build two 55-floor main buildings instead of the

• Tech 
  

  LG Electronics CEO offers to pay $1m salary to top AI talents

  LG Electronics Chief Executive Officer Cho Joo-wan traveled to the US to meet with big tech counterparts and discuss collaboration in artificial intelligence, as well as to secure AI talents, the company said Sunday. Hosting a tech conference in Cupertino, California on Saturday, Cho underscored the importance of talents in AI development and said the company is willing to offer large salaries to secure top talents. "Changes such as electrification, servitization and digitalization are o

• Companies 
  

  Battery makers ramp up efforts to diversify graphite supply chain

  Korean battery makers are speeding up efforts to diversify their supply chains to source key materials, including graphite, as the US pushes back the deadline for the ban on the use of Chinese minerals by two years. Earlier this month, the US Treasury Department announced an extension to its $7,500 tax credit scheme for electric vehicles containing components from Foreign Entities of Concern, which includes China, until the end of 2026. "There have been concerns that if Korean batteries

• Tech 
  

  Samsung Electronics microwave tops European market

  Samsung Electronics said Sunday that it has retained its top market share position in the microwave market in Europe for the ninth consecutive year. According to market research firm Euromonitor, Samsung Electronics ranked No. 1 with a market share of 15.3 percent in the microwave segment across 19 European countries surveyed last year. The company targeted the market by offering premium materials and distinctive designs, reflecting the high level of interest in kitchen interior design among

• Markets 
  

  Loans of self-employed swell 50% in four years

  The reliance on bank loans among self-employed South Koreans has surged considerably since the onset of the pandemic, with the overall loan volume and the default rate rising steeply in the past four years. According to data from the nation's major credit ratings firm Nice, provided to Rep. Yang Kyung-sook of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, the outstanding loans to self-employed individuals from local financial institutions totaled 1,112.74 trillion won ($811 billion) as of the

• Companies 
  

  Motional delays self-driving service launch to 2026 following Hyundai investment

  Hyundai Motor Group's joint venture Motional announced staff reductions and a two-year delay to its driverless taxi service plans last week, following the group's 1.29 trillion won ($941 million) injection into the startup earlier this month, reflecting growing industry pessimism about the viability of self-driving cars. Hyundai established Motional with Aptiv in the US in 2020 and launched its Ioniq 5-based robo-taxi service with Uber and Lyft last year. However, the rollout of the second-gen

• Tech 
  

  Chinese Roborock’s rare success on home turf of Samsung, LG

  China’s Roborock, the popular robot vacuum cleaner brand, has become a rare success story on the home turf of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Despite the dominance of the two Korean firms in the nation’s home appliance market, when it comes to the burgeoning robot cleaner market, the Chinese runner-up has maintained its top position over the past four years. Last month, Roborock released its latest flagship model, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, which is capable of both vacuumi

• Markets 
  

  Science Ministry expresses regret over Japan’s pressure on Naver

  The Science Ministry on Friday expressed regret over the Japanese government’s pressure on Naver to shed its ownership stakes in the popular messaging app Line, hinting at "strong and stern" measures if necessary. “The Seoul government's firm position is that we’ll ensure Korean companies, including Naver, are not subject to any unreasonable measures related to overseas business and overseas investment,” Second Vice Science Minister Kang Do-hyun told reporters

• Markets 
  

  Korean Air in talks to sell five B747 jets to Sierra Nevada

  Korean Air is in talks with Sierra Nevada Corporation, the US aerospace and defense firm, to sell its five B747-8i jets in an apparent move to boost its operational efficiency ahead of its planned merger with Asiana Airlines. According to industry sources on Friday, Korean Air held a board meeting Wednesday and decided to sell the planes to Sierra Nevada. The deal, valued at about 918 billion won ($674 million), is expected to be completed by September 2025. Currently, the company owns nine un