Property developer confirms acquisition, raises bidding amount to outrun SBW consortium

GS Caltex said Thursday it has purchased 2 million barrels of crude oil certified as “carbon neutral” at the point of production, becoming the first South Korean firm to buy carbon neutral crude oil. According to the total energy company, the carbon neutral oil is extracted from Sweden-based Lundin Energy’s Johan Sverdrup oil field in Norway. The offshore field, certified as carbon neutral under product testing company Intertek’s CarbonZero standard, emits 0.45 kilogr

S-Oil won the excellence award from Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco which honors high-achievers among the group’s refining and petrochemical affiliates at home and abroad. It was awarded the best performance award, the top prize in the operational excellence category at Saudi Aramco 2021 President’s Affiliates Excellence Awards, S-Oil said on Thursday. Saudi Aramco assesses the business results of its downstream affiliates every year and presents awards in four categories -- hea

LG Energy Solution said Thursday it has completed the supply of its new battery system TR1300 to the world’s largest energy storage systems project in California, which is able to power 225,000 households during peak hours. According to the South Korean battery manufacturer, the 1.2-gigawatt-hour ESS facility, developed by Texas-based power generation firm Vistra, is equipped with 4,500 TR1300 battery racks. Vistra connected the energy storage systems to the power grid and began oper

Han Sung Motor, an official Mercedes-Benz dealer, on Thursday opened an online store offering merchandise made by students participating in its Dream Gream art scholarship program. The store sells merchandise made by its scholarship recipients, artistically gifted middle and highs school students, in collaboration with professional artists. Items on sale include note papers, decorative masking tape, travel bags and fabric sprays, as well as items produced in collaboration with companies inclu

Merck Korea is offering education on semiconductor and display solutions to local high school and college students studying related subjects, as part of its ESG initiative, the company said Thursday. According to the Korean unit of the science and technology company, the new education program comes after Kai Beckmann, member of the executive board of Merck and CEO of the Electronics, and Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung agreed on a partnership in April. During their meeting, the two sid

South Korea's state-run Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO) said Thursday it has sold 200 billion won ($177 million) in environment, social and governance (ESG) bonds to help support pandemic-hit households and companies. The five-year bonds, which mark KAMCO's first ESG debt sale in line with standards set by the International Capital Market Association, carry an annual interest rate of 1.884 percent. The state asset manager said the proceeds will be used in helping the vulnerable by purchas

KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Thursday it will invest a total of 23.6 billion won ($20.9 million) in three companies under the fintech-focused Webcash Group in a move to strengthen its foothold in financial services. A KT spokesperson said the company will invest 14.4 billion won in Webcash, which operates Kyungrinara, a bookkeeping solution for small businesses, and a combined 9.2 billion won in bizplay, a business expense management platform operator, and Roumit, also

Hyundai Motor Co. said Thursday it has resumed operations of a local plant following a one-day suspension due to lack of semiconductors. Hyundai halted the Asan plant, which produces the Grandeur sedan, on Wednesday, causing production losses of 1,027 vehicles, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company has temporarily halted some of its domestic plants on a chip shortage. It has seven domestic plants -- five in Ulsan, one in Asan and one in Jeonju -- and 10 overseas plants -- four

South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. said Thursday it has completed the supply of its battery system to the world's largest energy storage system (ESS) that has come online in the United States. LG Energy, a battery unit under LG Chem Ltd., said its lithium-ion batteries are now running on US power generation firm Vistra Energy's 1.2 gigawatt-hour (GWh) ESS facility in California. In December, Vistra connected the ESS facility to its 1,020-MW combined cycle gas turbine power pla

Samsung Electronics Co. was the second-largest vendor of wearable devices in Europe in the first quarter of the year, although its market share declined as archrival Apple Inc. expanded its presence. Samsung posted a 16.1 percent market share in the January-March period in the European market, down from a 16.8 percent share a year earlier, according to the latest report from market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC). The South Korean tech giant shipped 3.5 million wearable products in

South Korea's leading steelmaker Posco is likely to post a record operating income for the second quarter of the year on a recovery in global demand, according to market forecasts Thursday. Eight local brokerages' median estimate for Posco's operating profit stands at 1.93 trillion won ($1.73 billion) for the April-June, up more than 10 times from a year earlier, according to an analysis of their forecasts by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. The figure marks the la

South Korean conglomerates appear to be gradually changing their recruitment methods in favor of experienced workers and year-round recruitment of new employees. A public organization said Wednesday that major domestic companies are planning to fill about 40 percent of their new job openings with experienced workers, as opposed to fresh university graduates, in the second quarter of this year. According to the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS), 137 out of the nation's top 500 compani

Small businesses with five to 49 employees will be required to enforce a 52-hour workweek next month as planned by the government, the labor ministry said Wednesday, rejecting industry demands for a grace period. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it commissioned a survey of 1,300 small businesses in April and 93 percent of them responded that they were ready to implement the system starting July 1 as scheduled. Around 82 percent said they had already begun. In the manufacturing sector

Scarcity of leftover vaccines expected to continue through end-June