South Korean telecommunication firm KT announced Monday plans to take part in a new 9,000-kilometer subsea cable project reaching six countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, as an owner and operator. With the new project, KT aims to meet a growing corporate demand for greater connectivity to achieve digital transformation. KT signed a memorandum of understanding with real estate consulting firm Savills Korea on Monday to launch and operate the submarine cable, connecting six countries --

Customers bought furniture, home appliances in 2020; more bags and clothes in 2021

Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. on Monday reported its fourth-quarter net loss of 3.2 billion won ($2.7 million), remaining in the red compared with a year ago. The company said in a regulatory filing that operating income for the October-December period rose 469.8 percent on-year to 18.9 billion won. Revenue increased 18.2 percent to 599.6 billion won. The operating profit was 49.0 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonh

Celltrion has confirmed the safety of its inhalable antibody treatment for COVID-19 in a phase one clinical trial in Australia, the pharmaceutical company said Monday. Celltrion’s US partner Inhalon Biopharma completed the planned administering of the drugs for 24 volunteers after it acquired testing approval from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration in August. The results of the clinical trial proved the drug’s safety, as there were no serious adverse events from inha

NextRise 2022, Seoul, a global startup conference co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association and Korea Development Bank, is set to be held in Seoul on June 16 and 17, with aims to connect startups and their potential business partners and spur innovation among them. Launched in 2019, the conference has become Asia’s largest startup fair in terms of the size. Last year’s event attracted some 12,000 visitors from around the world despite the coronavirus pandemic. This y

Samsung Electronics said Monday it plans to reuse discarded fishing nets as a new material for its handset devices as part of its sustainability strategy announced earlier this year. According to the South Korean tech giant, the repurposed ocean-bound plastics, also known as “ghost nets,” will be incorporated in Samsung’s new product lineup under its Mobile Experience division, starting with the new Galaxy devices to be unveiled in the Unpacked event on Feb. 9, at 10 a.m. US E

The combined global market share of three major South Korean battery makers declined last year from a year earlier, due largely to the growth of their Chinese rivals, data showed Monday. The cumulative market share of LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), SK Innovation Co. and Samsung SDI Co. came to 30.4 percent in the January-December period, down 4.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to market tracker SNE Research. LGES, which supplies electric vehicle batteries to Ford, Tesla

Lotte Chemical Corp., the petrochemical unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, said Monday it is spending 602 billion won ($502 million) to boost its advanced materials business, including building a new factory for electric vehicle battery materials. The company said it will spend about 233 billion won to build a new factory in its main domestic production complex in the southwestern city of Seosan to produce high-purity ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) used in ele

Mercedes-Benz has been fined 20.2 billion won ($16.84 million) by the nation’s antitrust watchdog for fiddling with emissions readings in its diesel cars here. According to the Fair Trade Commission on Sunday, the German luxury carmaker falsely advertised some of its diesel vehicles as capable of reducing 90 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions, the main culprit of fine dust, and that it satisfies Euro 6 environmental standards. These claims were advertised extensively through the brand&

Samsung Display has launched a new platform where its vendors can test their raw materials for OLED panels free of charge, the company said Sunday. The “Sync-OLED” platform, co-developed with the supercomputing center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, allows suppliers to run simulations on their materials and predict how they will affect the performance of OLED panels. The new platform is expected to shave costs significantly for partners. When partn

Samsung SDI will voluntarily recall 1,163 battery modules inside some 100 Ford and Stellantis vehicles in the US due to welding issues, according to the governmental National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Sunday. While putting battery cells together into modules, components called bus bars were not welded properly, which could lead to a loss of propulsion of electric vehicles. The bus bars were manufactured by South Korean subsupplier Next+. As the recall is due to welding issues

Korea’s major game developers are taking preemptive measures to cope with the new industrial safety law and prevent another “crunch mode” controversy. Under the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which took effect from Jan. 27, business owners can face a minimum prison term of one year or a fine of up to 1 billion won ($835,000) if a fatal accident at the workplace causes a death or more than one injured person. The punishment depends on whether the owners are found guilty of n

South Korea's fisheries output rose 1.2 percent last year from a year earlier on the back of improved production from the aquaculture sector, data showed Sunday. The total fisheries output amounted to 3.76 million tons in 2021, compared with 3.71 million tons tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. In terms of value, the output came to 9.24 trillion won ($7.7 billion), up 5.6 percent on-year, the data showed. The aquaculture sector led t

New pet chauffeur service to offer full insurance coverage for animal customers during their ride

Companies don’t want to expose themselves to risks associated with geopolitical controversy, say market insiders