Coway achieved its highest annual sales of 3.2 trillion won in 2020, largely backed by the growth in overseas purchases, the Korean home appliances rental company said Thursday. Last year, Coway said its annual sales increased by 7.2 percent, when compared to the year earlier, thanks to its thriving overseas business. The operating profit and net profit stood at 606.4 billion won and 404.7 billion won, jumping 32.3 percent and 21.8 percent on-year, respectively. “Amidst internal and e

Cadillac of GM Korea is launching its first entry-level sports utility vehicle XT4 in Korea to target younger drivers, the company said Thursday. The automaker said the XT4 model here will be come in the sport trim with all functional options -- including massage seats in the driver and the passenger seats in the front, and a panoramic sunroof. With a price tag of 55.3 million won ($50,000), the new model seeks to gain an upper hand in the compact SUV segment, against its potential rivals M

Signs of hope for Eastar Jet as more buyers show up

South Korean CEO of food delivery giant joins likes of Bill Gates in philanthropic donations

Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody therapy to be globally supplied at 1/5 cost of US competitors

South Korea said Thursday the accumulated number of eco-friendly cars running in the country will reach 7.85 million by 2030, in line with its vision to go fully carbon-neutral by 2050. The target will mark a sharp rise from 820,000 units tallied in the previous year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The emission of greenhouse gases from cars will also fall 24 percent over the period. The announcement came as a part of the five-year fourth basic plan on promoting the ec

South Korea's three major multiplex chain operators have seen their respective 2020 sales plunge nearly 70 percent from a year earlier due to the fallout of the yearlong novel coronavirus pandemic, data showed Thursday. Industry leader CJ CGV, the cinema affiliate under the wing of entertainment giant CJ Group, said its sales reached 583.4 billion won ($527.9 million) last year, down 70 percent from the previous year. It shifted to an operating loss of 392.5 billion won in 2020 from an operati

The mobile game market in South Korea logged sharp growth of over 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) last year amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. Total mobile game transactions in the country were estimated at 5.3 trillion won in 2020, up 24.3 percent from the previous year, according to data from mobile app tracker IGAWorks based on estimated sales of Google's Play store, Apple's App Store and homegrown rival ONE Store. Last year's growth far outpaced that of 2019 when it grew 5.3 percent fr

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Thursday it has clinched a 459 billion-won ($415 million) deal to build four liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled oil tankers. Under the deal with an Oceania company, the very large crude carriers will be delivered by June 2023, the shipbuilder said. Samsung Heavy Industries did not reveal the name of the Oceanian company. With the latest order, Samsung Heavy Industries has bagged $1.7 billion worth of orders, or 14 ships, so far this year. Samsung Heavy Indus

　South Korea’s exports of cosmetics shot up 16 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, data showed, on the back of the growing demand from the United States and elsewhere in Asia. 　Outbound shipments of cosmetics reached $7.57 billion last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service and the Korea Cosmetic Association. 　Experts say the growth was attributable to the Hallyu, or Korean Wave, which has resulted in a boom in Korean entertainment products such as pop mus

The CEO of South Korea's top food delivery app operator, Woowa Brothers Corp., said Thursday that he will donate more than half of his wealth, estimated to be more than 1 trillion won ($905 million). "My wife Bomi Sul and I hereby pledge that we will return more than half of our wealth to society during our lifetime," Kim Bong-min said in a message on the website of the Giving Pledge. Giving Pledge, created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, is a global campaign by the wor

Scotch whisky brand Royal Salute is holding a pop-up art exhibition at Seoul Auction‘s Gangnam Branch that continues until Tuesday. The show features contemporary artwork inspired by the whisky brand from five artists including Kim Sun-woo, qwaya, 275c and Adrian Seo and Sung Nak-jin. Alongside the artwork, a range of Royal Salute whiskys, including this year’s latest lineup and limited editions, are also on display -- including the 29-year-old Pedro Ximénez edition. Entry

The South Korean government will roll out massive support programs for exporters this year, aiming to return the country’s export volume to pre-pandemic levels, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Wednesday. Exports, the main locomotive of Asia’s fourth largest economy, are projected to have fallen below $1 trillion for the first time in four years due to economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the annual plan from the Ministry of Trade, Industry an

Naver plans to raise as much as 700 billion won through bond sales to secure funds required to set up a new data center in South Korea and invest in foreign platform startups. The South Korean internet giant disclosed the plan, which would be the largest in its history, in a regulatory filing with the Financial Services Commission on Tuesday. The target amount is set initially at 400 billion won, with a possibility of rising to 700 billion won, it said. The bond issue will be Naver’s

Celltrion began nationwide distribution of its monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Celltrion’s regdanvimab is Korea’s first emergency-approved COVID-19 treatment. All 156 state-designated COVID-19 medical institutes are eligible for free distribution of regdanvimab, Celltrion said, upon individual submission of supply request. Patients who can receive the shot are confirmed COVID-19 patients who have yet to pass seven days from the first onset of symptoms, who