South Korea's leading shipper, HMM Co., said Sunday it has deployed one additional ship to the United States to cope with soaring freight costs amid the new coronavirus pandemic. HMM said a 5,000 twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) ship carrying local companies' containers departed from the southeastern port city of Busan earlier in the day and is expected to arrive at a port in Los Angeles on May 13. HMM has operated 21 temporary ships since August, with 15 covering US routes, to handle a shar

South Korea's homegrown craft beer has increasingly gained popularity over recent years, industry data showed Sunday, as local brewers offer a wide range of flavors at competitive prices. The local craft beer market was valued at 118 billion won ($105.6 million) as of 2020, sharply up from 43.3 billion won in 2017, according to data by the Korea Craft Brewers' Association. Jeju Beer Company, based on the southern resort island of Jeju, was the nation's leading craft brewer, booking 33.5 billi

South Korean conglomerate LG Group has launched its new holding firm with about 8 trillion won ($7.1 billion) of assets as part of its restructuring plan, company officials said Sunday. The new holding firm named LX Holdings has five LG affiliates under its wing -- LG International Corp., LG Hausys Ltd., LG MMA Corp., Silicon Works Co. and Pantos Co. In November, LG Group decided to hive off some affiliates for Koo Bon-joon, an uncle of current LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and a younger brot

BUSAN -- A towering shipyard crane nimbly moves over stacks of cargo crates at a terminal in Busan Port, South Korea's largest seaport 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to snatch a container box and gently load it onto a truck. While the scene is business as usual for the bustling port that processed over 410 million tons of cargo last year, the crane is unusual in that its driver's seat -- 25 meters off the ground -- is empty. The over 20-year-old industrial machine runs in semi-autonomous m

Multibrand online stores are changing the way we shop for clothes

Unionized workers at Renault Samsung Motors Corp. held a strike at the company's sole domestic plant on Friday to demand a wage hike for the year of 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, the union said. Renault Samsung's 1,900-strong union staged a general strike at the Busan plant, 450 kilometers south of Seoul, as they are not satisfied with the company's proposals, a union spokesman said. The union demanded an increase of 71,687 won (US$64) in monthly basic pay and a bonus of 7 million wo

Lee Jae-yong, the eldest son of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, officially became the leader of the Samsung empire by inheriting 50 percent of his father’s stake in Samsung Life Insurance, the company’s regulatory filing showed Friday. Lee received more than 20 million shares of the life insurer, owning a 10.44 percent stake in the affiliate, according to the filing. Samsung C&T, the construction arm and de facto holding company of Samsung Group, remains the largest sh

The number of 5G users in South Korea stood at over 14 million last month, two years after the networks first went live in the country, data showed Friday, as the country pushes to accelerate adoption of the latest generation networks. As of the end of March, 5G subscriptions stood at 14.48 million, accounting for 20 percent of the total 71.1 million mobile subscriptions in the country, according to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea was the first country in the world to co

Korean Air, Doosan, SK, LIG unveil different strategies to take initiative in nearing drone era

LG Electronics will create a 100 billion won ($90.15 million) fund with Mirae Asset Group, the country’s largest nonbank financial institution, to invest in new businesses including electric vehicles, the companies said Friday. The two business units will contribute 50 billion won each to the fund, which will be operated for 10 years. Chief Strategy Officer Cho Ju-wan of LG Electronics, Chief Executive Officer Lee Man-hee of Mirae Asset Capital and other executives held a ceremony on F

Memory chip prices are rising sharply amid a global semiconductor shortage, industry data showed Friday, boding well for South Korean chipmakers that dominate the sector. The contract price of 8-gigabit DDR4 DRAM, which is widely used in personal computers, reached $3.80 for this month, up 26.67 percent from the previous month, according to TrendForce. It marks the largest monthly increase since January 2017, when the contract price of the product soared 35.8 percent. The contract price had b

Lotte Engineering & Construction Co. said Friday that its joint venture has won a $146.9 million ($110.7 million) deal to build a transport hub in Singapore in the first entry into the city state. Under the deal with the Singapore Land Transport Authority, Lotte E&C and its Singaporean partner Bintai Kindenko Pte Ltd. will be responsible for design and installation of mechanical and electrical works for the Jurong East integrated transport hub. The project comprises community and civic

South Korea’s leading steelmaker Posco has set up a new entity in Europe and will launch another one in Korea to recycle LG Energy Solution’s electric vehicle batteries, according to industry officials. “The new entity has been established in Poland recently and we are in the process of forming another one in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, which is currently awaiting approval,” a Posco official said Friday. The new entity in Poland will collect defective batteries f

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Friday that it has signed a 184.5 billion won ($166.5 million) deal to build two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers. Under the deal with local shipper Hyundai LNG Shipping Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding will deliver the vessels by the fourth quarter of 2023, the shipbuilder said. Hyundai LNG Shipping is a local shipper specialized in liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation. Daewoo Shipbuilding has won orders of 24 ships, including 11 oil

Samsung Electronics Co. was the runner-up in the first-quarter smartphone market in terms of revenue, a report showed Friday, though it was the top vendor by volume. The South Korean tech titan logged a revenue share of 17.5 percent in the January-March period, down from 20.2 percent a year earlier, according to market tracker Counterpoint Research. Samsung was the only brand among the top five to see its revenue share decline as others expanded their presence. Apple Inc. defended its top s