China has been proactively consulting with South Korea to help ease its supply shortage of urea water solution needed in diesel vehicles, Beijing's foreign ministry said Tuesday. South Korea has been grappling with a shortage of urea water solution in recent weeks as Beijing last month tightened exports of urea and other raw materials amid a coal supply shortage. Coal is the main feedstock for urea. "China highly appreciates South Korea's demand for (urea) and has been proactively negotia

The sense of crisis is deepening in South Korea, as an acute shortage of a chemical called urea threatens to disrupt businesses across a vast spectrum from construction to retail.  Government officials are mobilizing diplomacy to secure urea supplies from overseas, but no immediate solution is in sight.  The Korea Herald looks at what is causing this sudden urea crunch and why this is such a hard problem to solve. 1. What is urea, anyway? Urea is a type of nitrogen made mainly of

World’s No. 6 steelmaker Posco aims to go carbon neutral with hydrogen-based steel, but challenges remain

Business leaders in South Korea and the US have called for the protection of confidential business information and urged to ensure the autonomy of the private sector as the post-COVID global supply chain is being realigned. During the 33rd Plenary Meeting of Korea-US & US-KOREA Business Councils on Tuesday, an event jointly held by the Federation of Korean Industries and the US Chamber of Commerce, issues such as bilateral relations, climate change and building a resilient global supply cha

South Korea's No. 2 retailer Shinsegae Inc. said Tuesday that its third-quarter net income steeply increased as its department store business got a boost from pent-up demand amid the extended coronavirus pandemic. Net income came to 188.9 billion won ($160.3 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, sharply up from a profit of 858 million won a year ago, according to a corporate regulatory filing. Operating income rose 307.1 percent on-year to 102.4 billion won, and sales

Industry’s first 14-nanometer-based 16-gigabit LPDDR5X is 1.3 times faster than the previous LPDDR5 solution

Convenience store chain CU is exporting 10,000 dalgona, the traditional Korean sugar candy from “Squid Game,” to Mongolia and Malaysia, said its operator BGF Retail. Dalgona, an old-fashioned Korean candy made using sugar and baking soda, has become an overnight sensation after the success of the Netflix show. A total of 10,000 dalgona will be shipped to Mongolia and Malaysia, 5,000 to each country, BGF said. The product will feature four different shapes -- umbrella, star, heart

South Korean manufacturers' domestic supply rose at a slower pace in the third quarter from three months earlier mainly because a shortage of auto chips dented vehicle production, data showed Tuesday. The manufacturing domestic supply index stood at 105.3 in the July-September period, up 2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The reading slowed from the second quarter when it grew at the fastest-ever on-year pace of 9.1 percent. The index, which measures b

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Tuesday its third-quarter net income rose 46.9 percent from a year earlier on the back of robust growth of 5G network subscribers as well as its media content businesses. Net income for the July-September period stood at 337.7 billion won ($286.7 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with a net profit of 229.9 billion won the previous year, according to a company statement. Operating income reached 382.4 billion won, up 30 percent over the cite

South Korean shipbuilders regained the No. 1 ranking from their Chinese rivals in global new orders in October, bagging more than half of the global orders, industry data showed Tuesday. Local shipbuilders led by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. won a combined 1.12 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) in new orders last month, taking up 52 percent of 2.13 million CGT global orders, according to data provided by global market researcher Clarkson Research Service. Chinese shipbuilders, which ranked

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. said Tuesday that it has signed a 636.3 billion won ($ 539.7 million) deal to build an Aegis destroyer of the South Korean Navy. Under the deal with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Hyundai Heavy Industries will deliver the warship, which is the second of three upgraded Aegis destroyers named Gwanggaeto-III Batch II, to the Navy by 2026. Hyundai Heavy Industries is set to deliver the first of the three upgraded destroyers to the Navy by 2024. The fi

South Korea's top steelmaker Posco said Tuesday it was named the world's most competitive steelmaker in a global industry report for the 12th consecutive year. In an annual assessment of 35 steelmakers worldwide, global steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics (WSD) gave Posco the top mark of 8.54 points out of 10, according to the South Korean company. The WSD report, which ranks the steelmakers based on 23 categories, gave top scores for Posco in eight segments, including tech

NHN Corp., a South Korean leading information technology company, on Tuesday said its third-quarter net profit jumped 38.7 percent from a year earlier, buoyed by increased revenue from its payment and IT services, including cloud. Net income came to 44.5 billion won ($37.6 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, up from 32.1 billion won a year earlier, according to its regulatory filing. Its operating profit gained 18.6 percent to 27.9 billion won and sales grew 14.8 per

South Korea and Chile signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to expand cooperation in the low-carbon hydrogen sector, Seoul's industry ministry said Tuesday. South Korea's Second Vice Industry Minister Park Ki-young held a signing ceremony with Chilean Minister for Energy and Mining Juan Carlos Jobet in Seoul for the agreement, which calls for exchanging technologies of producing, storing, transporting and using clean hydrogen, according to Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. on Tuesday submitted information on their chip businesses to the United States but withheld some key data considered trade secrets in an apparent delicate balancing act. The two South Korean chipmakers made the filings about two months after the US Department of Commerce requested data on the ongoing chip crisis that has hobbled global automakers and other electronic product manufacturers. Washington had asked major chipmakers to "voluntarily"