South Korea was the world's largest spender on chip equipment in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Thursday, amid a global semiconductor shortage. South Korea, home to major memory chip producers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., spent $7.31 billion in chipmaking equipment in the January-March period, up 118 percent from a year ago, according to quarterly billings data from SEMI, a global industry association representing companies in the electronics design and manufactur

Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Corp., South Korea's two biggest carmakers, said Thursday their combined US sales again broke their monthly record for the third consecutive month in May thanks to the popularity of their SUV models.  Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 170,315 vehicles in the United States last month, up 64.6 percent from a year ago, according to the companies' sales data. Both Hyundai and Kia, which together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, reported the

Automaker seeks distinguishment with Hyundai Motor’s Ioniq 5

South Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are taking the initiative in the messenger RNA vaccine sector in hopes of developing new COVID-19 vaccines and building their capabilities to counter the next pandemic. Samsung Biologics, a major contract manufacturer of drugs, plans to add an mRNA vaccine production line at its facility in Songdo, Incheon, to potentially manufacture ingredients for new mRNA vaccines. ST Pharm, GeneOne Life Science and Hanmi Science are bent on developing

SK Lubricants, a subsidiary under SK Innovation, said Wednesday that its lubricant sales for electric vehicles is expected to double on-year, buoyed by a growing demand for EVs. The market size for EV lubricants will grow as much as six times by 2025, as the number of EVs, which stood at 3.94 million this year, will jump to 11.26 million by 2025, according to IHS Markit. EVs, which accelerate faster than gas-powered cars, require much more efficient lubricants that can cool down motors, gear

Samsung Electronics Co., Hyundai Motor Co. and other major South Korean companies are increasingly adopting "paid vaccine leave" for their employees as the country's vaccine rollout gathers pace and more workers get vaccinated. The companies, including retail giant Lotte Group, pharmaceutical firms and game publishers have introduced vaccine leave from one to three days depending on their employees' symptoms after vaccinations, industry sources said Wednesday. On Tuesday, Hyundai Mot

Starbucks Korea will ditch single-use cups at four of its stores on Jeju Island from next month, serving its coffee in reusable cups instead, the company announced Wednesday. Starting from July 6, customers at the four stores located at Seohaean-ro, Aewol, Chilseong and Hyeop-jae will be served beverages in reusable cups that require a deposit fee of 1,000 won ($0.90), refundable upon return. They can reclaim the deposit at any of the four stores or at a multiuse cup return machine installed

As the COVID-19 vaccination campaign gathers speed in South Korea, branded Tylenol is running short as people rushed to secure the painkiller to prepare for potential side effects of the jabs, industry data showed Wednesday. Worried about a serious supply shortage similar to those of masks and hand sanitizers in the early stage of the pandemic, experts set out to encourage people to go for alternative medicines with the same key ingredient and function. The top three convenience store chain

Logistics arm of Hyundai Motor Group seeks upper hand in growing EV market

The Korea International Trade Association helped local small and medium-sized companies and startups tap the Central and South American markets with a two-day trade fair for South Korean consumer goods this week, the state-run agency said Wednesday. The K-Consumer Goods and Exports Fair was held Tuesday and Wednesday, both online and offline at Seoul’s Coex and Bogota’s Corferias convention center, in cooperation with Seoul’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups. It was KITA’s

Samsung Electronics Co. was the top smartphone vendor in Chile in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, although its market share declined after its rivals grew sharply in the South American nation. The South Korean tech titan represented 42.1 percent of the Chilean smartphone market in the January-March period after its shipments jumped 63 percent on-year to a record 1.2 million units, according to the latest report from market researcher Strategy Analytics. "Samsung'

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip supplier, on Wednesday unveiled its new enterprise solid state drive (SSD) leveraging advanced data management technology that offers a longer lifespan. The South Korean tech giant said its new enterprise SSD, the PM1731a, features a Zoned Namespace (ZNS) solution that maximizes available user capacity and bolsters the lifetime of a server system. "These improvements will enable enterprise customers to handle big data and artificial

Financially troubled SsangYong Motor Co. has offered unpaid leave and a wage cut to its employees in its efforts to stay afloat, industry sources said Wednesday. SsangYong Motor, under court receivership, offered a two-year unpaid leave to half of its 4,732 employees, while demanding them to accept an extension of lower wages and suspended welfare benefits until June 2023, a person familiar with the matter told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. The company also offered an additional 20 percen

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Wednesday it has teamed up with local virtual reality (VR) content and visual effects companies to develop "metaverse" services in a move to boost its efforts in virtual platforms. The metaverse refers to virtual environments, in which users interact with one another often through virtual or augmented reality technology, and is found in the form of online games or social networking services. KT said in a statement it has formed the "M

Transactions among affiliates of South Korea's major family-controlled conglomerates fell nearly 9 percent in 2020 from a year ago due to tough regulations, data showed Wednesday. The value of in-house transactions by 2,197 units of 54 business groups came to 158.9 trillion won ($143 billion) last year, down 8.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by corporate tracker CEO Score. Internal transactions accounted for 11.7 percent of their total sales in 2020, down from 12.5 percent