Samsung Electronics and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a 30 billion won ($25.4 million) fund supporting smaller tech firms here. Samsung and the ministry are contributing 15 billion won each with the aim of supporting research work for locally-developed materials, parts and equipment for the next five years between 2022 and 2026. “In order to respond to changes in this new normal era, innovation should occur not at a compa

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker, said Wednesday its sales fell 17 percent last month from a year earlier amid global chip shortages. Hyundai Motor sold 312,602 vehicles in November, down from 377,193 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales declined 11 percent to 62,071 units from 70,035, as the lack of semiconductor parts continued to affect vehicle production and sales, it said. Overseas sales dropped 18 percent to 250,531 from 307,158 amid the

Two tech giants plan to launch mapping project for Japanese cities next year

Chip shortage will only worsen profit outlook

Renault Samsung Motors Corp., the South Korean unit of Renault S.A., said Wednesday its vehicle sales more than doubled last month from a year earlier on robust exports. Renault Samsung sold 11,743 vehicles in November, sharply up from 867 units a year earlier despite the extended COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales fell 15 percent on-year to 6,129 units from 7,207, but exports soared to 11,743 units from 867 on strong demand for its SUV models, it said. From Ja

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has decided to impose a combined 2.37 billion-won ($2 million) fine on SYS Holdings and its affiliate for the parent company's illegal support. SYS Holdings, a leasing company, provided real estate collateral for free to its affiliate SYS Retail, an operator of an electronics goods discount outlet, between December 2009 and November 2021, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC). The move helped SYS Retail easily take 195 rounds of low-in

The second batch of urea under export inspection in China was to arrive in South Korea on Wednesday, the oceans ministry said, which is expected to help address supply crunch of urea solution, a key fluid needed in diesel cars to cut emissions. The ship carrying 3,000 tons of urea will arrive in the southeastern city of Ulsan around 9 p.m. after leaving from the Longkou port in China's northeastern province of Shandong on Monday, according to the ministry. It is part of the 18,700 tons of urea

SsangYong Motor Co. said Wednesday its sales fell 26 percent last month from a year earlier amid a prolonged chip shortage. SsangYong Motor sold 8,748 vehicles in November, down from 11,859 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales declined 32 percent to 6,277 units last month from 9,270 a year ago, while exports were down 3.4 percent to 2,501 units from 2,589 during the same period, it said. From January to November, its sales fell 3.4 percent to 75,351 autos from

As operator of state-funded project, Korea Bio bolsters cooperation among bio firms, research institutes and investors

A Canadian virtual real estate company Metaverse Group, a subsidiary of investment firm Tokens.com, bought a virtual land in a metaverse platform called Decentraland for $2.4 million. Established in 2017, Decentraland is an online platform that deals with virtual assets in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, based on the Ethereum blockchain. Avatars in the Decentraland can earn money by embarking on speculative investment, hosting exhibitions, and conducting advertisement campai

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) said Wednesday it has bagged orders worth a combined 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) to build six liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. Under the deals with two companies in North America, the 174,000-cubic meter LNG carriers will be delivered by the second half of 2025, DSME said. DSME has won orders worth $10.44 billion so far this year, far exceeding its annual order target of $7.7 billion. With the latest deals, DSME's annual orders

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday that its secretary general Shin Bong-sam has been elected as a bureau member of the OECD’s Competition Committee. According to OECD, major objective of OECD Competition Committee is to inform and encourage senior regulators and antitrust enforcers to act consistently on enforcement of competition laws.  The committee is comprised of representatives from 16 member countries which lead the enforcement of competition laws. A tot

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has signed a $245 million deal with a European company to sell its drill ship it has failed to deliver due to a botched deal. "The deal will help improve our financial health along with our recent sale of new shares," Samsung Heavy said in an emailed statement. The drill ship sold to the European company is one of two drill ships that Swiss-based offshore driller Transocean Ltd. relinquished without specifying a reason in September 2019.

The number of smartphone users on 5G mobile networks had topped 19 million as of October, data showed Wednesday, as new smartphone launches boosted user growth in the latest generation networks. The total number of 5G users reached 19.38 million in October, accounting for around 27 percent of the total 72.15 million mobile subscriptions in the country, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea, which has a population of 52 million, first commercialized 5G networks

The number of weekly users on Disney+, the flagship streaming service of US media giant Walt Disney Co., topped 1 million in less than a month since its launch here, a market research firm said Wednesday. The streaming service's weekly users in South Korea reached 1.01 million from Nov. 15 to 21, becoming the fifth most used over-the-top (OTT) media service, according to data from market tracker Nielsen KoreanClick. Netflix ranked first with 4.71 million users, followed by homegrown players Wa