McDonald’s Korea said Tuesday it donated 4,200 burger sets to firefighters in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, as the region struggles in handling COVID-19. According to the company, it delivered 4,200 coupons that can trade for 1955 Burger set menu to Daegu Fire Department and Gyeongbuk Fire Service Headquarters on Monday. With the number of patients increasing in the region that is hit hardest by the epidemic in South Korea, firefighters have been taking the role to transport the

LS Cable and System said Tuesday it has won a contract worth about $85 million for a subway cable project to connect Bahrain’s islands. The company said it clinched the deal on a turnkey basis, to supply the submarine cables needed to connect 25 kilometers between the Bahrain’s main island and its Hawar Islands in the southeast. The contract was finalized by Al Gihaz, a Saudi Arabian engineering, procurement and construction company. The company will take charge -- from product s

LG employees eat lunch at partitioned tables as a precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19, at the group’s Twin Towers headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, Tuesday. (LG Corp.)

South Korean companies, including Samsung and LG, are on edge about the possibility of critical production setbacks at key manufacturing bases in Vietnam and China as a result of coronavirus fears. The nation’s largest tech firms, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, produce smartphones and home appliances in Vietnam. In China, Samsung and SK hynix produce chips, LG Display makes organic light-emitting diode panels, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors manufacture automobiles and LG Chem pro

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun sent a letter to employees Tuesday highlighting the group’s all-out efforts to secure safety and minimize business risk under its contingency plan. Chung said in an email that the group has been “actively cooperating with the government-led measures,” vowing to fully support employees’ safety with “all available resources.” He added that the group’s affiliates have been monitoring the COVID-19 o

South Korea’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mi contacted her Vietnamese counterpart to express regret over a recent incident where a Korean air carrier was denied permission to land in Hanoi and was forced to turn back, government sources said Tuesday. In a letter to the Vietnamese aviation authorities, Kim wrote that it presented “a serious safety issue to order a plane to land in an unfamiliar airport while it is in flight.”  She reportedly also

South Korean mobile carriers are struggling to entice more customers for 5G services amid the new coronavirus outbreak, according to latest data Tuesday. In January, the number of 5G network users here increased by 290,000 to 4.95 million in a month, the lowest amount of increase since local mobile carriers launched 5G services in April last year, as per ICT Ministry data. Since April last year, local telecom firms saw the number of new 5G network subscribers increase by more than half a mill

Samsung Electronics Co.'s share of the European smartphone market advanced slightly in the fourth quarter of last year, benefiting from rival Huawei Technologies Co.'s struggle with a US trade ban, data showed Tuesday. Samsung had a 27 percent market share in Europe in the fourth quarter, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, apparently enlarged its presence after Huawei was barred fr

The semiconductor industry, bellwether for the South Korean economy, showed signs of recovery last month, despite the aggravating coronavirus woes, according to various indicators Tuesday. The country’s total chip exports grew 9.4 percent to $7.42 billion in February compared to the same month last year, data by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed. It was the first on-year growth in silicon exports in 15 months. In spite of the extended Chinese Lunar New Year holiday l

Amid the continued spike in COVID-19 cases in South Korea and Italy, Korean air carriers said Tuesday that they would temporarily halt service to Italian cities.  According to the full-service carrier Korean Air, it has canceled all flights on its Incheon-Rome route from March 5 to April 25. This is the first time all flights on that route have been canceled, since its launch in 1991.  Another full-service carrier, Asiana Airlines, decided to halt its Incheon-Rome flights March 8-28

South Korea's car sales fell 11 percent last month from a year earlier as supply disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak resulted in reduced production.     The country's five carmakers -- Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and SsangYong Motor  -- sold a combined 505,212 vehicles in February, down from 565,568 units a year ago, according to data from the companies.    The lower sales largely resulted from shortages of auto compone

Celltrion said Monday it gave 1 billion won ($841,000) to areas hit hard with COVID-19 to help curb the spread. The donation has been divided to areas most affected and which had strong links to Celltrion. Daegu, the city with the highest number of affected COVID-19 patients in Korea at 3,081 as of Monday afternoon, was given 400 million won, while North Gyeongsang Province, the second-heaviest hit region with 624 patients, received 200 million won. Incheon and North Chungcheong Province we

South Korea’s cosmetics giant Amorepacific said Monday it will seek a new buyer for its office building in Nonhyun, southern Seoul, as the preferred bidder has backed out. According to the firm, Hanyang Construction -- which was chosen as the preferred bidder -- canceled the contract to buy Sungam Building for 160 billion won ($131.2 million). Amorepacific had said it decided to sell its building to secure liquidity and to improve solvency. The contracted price accounted for about 2 per

Decline in consumption in 3 weeks of Feb.

Samsung Electronics’ mobile business factory based in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, has confirmed the fourth case of coronavirus infection among its workforce, according to authorities Monday. An office worker at the Gumi site has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company reported. All of the office rooms on the same floor as the confirmed patient have now been cleared for disinfection. “There is no shutdown of the production lines in the Gumi site as of yet,&r