Samsung Biologics’ annual operating profit topped 1 trillion won ($749 million) last year for the first time, according to the company’s regulatory filing on Wednesday. Its operating profit came to 1.14 trillion won last year, up 13 percent from the previous year. Sales also surged 23 percent during the same period. The sales figure, in particular, exceeded the full-year earnings guidance the company had announced earlier. The company previously anticipated sales to reach 3.60 trilli

With April general election looming, National Assembly not moving on revision bill

Celltrion said Wednesday that the company has signed a business agreement with China’s WuXi XDC to accelerate its development of antibody-drug conjugates. WuXi XDC, a 60:40 joint venture between WuXi Biologics and WuXi STA, is a Chinese pharmaceutical company that provides contract research and development manufacturing organization services, mainly on ADCs and bioconjugates. The latest agreement is an extension of a contract development and manufacturing organization deal signed in Decemb

Concerns raised that protectionist policies will drag down EV investments in US

South Korean discount store chain Homeplus on Wednesday said it will start selling 2024 Lunar New Year gift sets from Saturday through Feb. 11, as the season of gift-giving is once again upon us. During this holiday season, Homeplus offers a curated selection of some 1,060 items at discounts of up to 50 percent. Based on consumer purchase data collected during about three weeks of pre-orders, the retailer has prepared a variety of gift sets, ranging from budget packages to high-end meat or seafo

South Korean oil refinery and petrochemical firm HD Hyundai Oilbank said Wednesday it is making significant inroads into the North American lubricants market by supplying its XTeer products for HD Hyundai XiteSolution's industrial vehicles. The strategic push by the two subsidiaries of HD Hyundai aims to secure a foothold in the lubricants market traditionally dominated by major industry players, where Korean manufacturers currently hold less than a 0.1 percent share. The refinery company&#

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that its flagship brand experience store, dubbed “Samsung BKC,” has opened at Jio World Plaza Mall in Mumbai, India. The 732-square-meter site is the first of its kind in India where visitors can experience and purchase Samsung’s latest devices. Samsung said preorders for the new Galaxy S24 series exceeded 250,000 units in three days in India -- a record for the flagship smartphone there. (Samsung Electronics)

LG Display said Wednesday it would focus investment on OLED displays this year, seeking to continue growth momentum after it posted the first profit in seven quarters in the October-December period last year. “The panel demand, which has been volatile over the past three years due to COVID-19, is expected to stabilize this year. … We have raised our internal OLED panel shipment goal for this year by 20 percent on-year,” an LG Display official said during the company’s

The nation’s No. 1 ramyeon seller, Nongshim, said Wednesday that its flagship Shin Ramyun product posted record sales of 1.21 trillion won ($903 million) in 2023, a 14 percent jump from the previous year. The feat marks the second consecutive year that product sales surpassed 1 trillion won. Shin Ramyun sold about 1.66 billion packs last year globally, which is equivalent to 53 packets sold per second, the company said. Since its launch in 1986, its cumulative sales have amounted to 17.51

Samsung devices bring challenges to life, from Galaxy cameras as motion sensors to the S-pen stylus in the digital 'Dalgona Game'

South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO Holdings Inc. said Tuesday its 2023 earnings nearly halved from a year earlier amid a global industry slump. Net profit stood at 1.83 trillion won ($1.37 billion) last year, down 48.5 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales declined 9 percent on-year to 77.13 trillion won, with operating income falling 27.2 percent to 3.53 trillion won. POSCO Holdings' 2023 operating profit was far below a median estimate of 4.09

France's data protection agency said Tuesday that it had fined Amazon's French warehouses unit 32 million euros ($34.9 million) for an "excessively intrusive" surveillance system to keep track of staff performance. Amazon France Logistique monitored the work of employees in particular through data from scanners used by the staff to process packages, according to the agency, known by its initials CNIL. Scanners alerted management of inactivity exceeding 10 minutes or the handl

Beer prices at restaurants saw the steepest price hikes last year since the 1998 financial crisis, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service on Tuesday. The consumer price index for beer products at restaurants increased to 114.66 points last year, up 6.9 percent from a year ago. The growth rate was the highest since the 1998 financial crisis when the CPI for beer soared by 9.7 percent. In the meantime, the prices of beer products sold at discount or convenience stores saw 2.9 perc

Kurly, the operator of e-commerce platform Market Kurly, said Tuesday that it posted a profit in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, in December last year – its first since its establishment in 2015. The company said that EBITDA for December increased by more than 10 billion won ($7.5 million) compared to the previous year. The specific amount of the earnings was not immediately disclosed due to confidentiality issues. The company stressed that the fi

South Korean internet-only lender Kakao Bank said Tuesday that the annual international transfers made on its app exceeded $1 billion last year. The figure is the highest annual overseas remittance via Kakao Bank since the company started its service in July 2017, the firm said, adding that the cumulative amount of outbound remittances on the app had reached $5.4 billion. Users of Kakao Bank can make international wire transfers to 22 countries in 12 currencies via the company's own foreign