Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., a major South Korean plant builder, said Monday it has clinched a 780 billion-won ($707.8 million) deal to build a seawater desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. Doosan Heavy has inked a deal to build the Yanbu-4 facility with a consortium of French energy company Engie SA and Saudi Arabian firms Mowah and Nesma, the company said in a statement. The facility will be built in Alrayyis, some 260 kilometers north of the western port city of Jeddah, w

Kakao, the company behind Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk, announced Monday the launch of Kakao Entertainment following the merger of its two subsidiaries Kakao M and Kakao Page. The process of binding mobile-based web comic platform Kakao Page and entertainment firm Kakao M is set to be completed by March 1. The largest scale reorganization at Kakao, the deal is subject to a final approval at a board meeting on Tuesday. Kakao Page currently holds intellectual property ri

Lotte affiliates fall out of Kospi’s top-tier list amid lack of innovative growth

The vaccine will be available no later than mid-March

South Korean whiskey company Golden Blue said Monday that its Golden Blue Sappirus will hit the US market in February. Having been shipped Saturday, the blue-bottled whiskey will become the country’s first locally produced whiskey to be exported to the US, the largest market in the world, the company said. “Entering the US market is moving one step closer to the globalization of K-alcohol drinks,” said CEO Kim Dong-wook. Kim added that he’s certain that three years of

Hanwha Solutions said Monday it will triple production of the eco-friendly plastic material Eco-DEHCH to respond to a growing market demand. According to the South Korean solar-to-chemical company, it has completed the expansion of its Eco-DEHCH facility in Ulsan, increasing the annual production capacity from 15,000 metric tons to maximum 65,000 tons. The expansion cost 45 billion won ($40.7 million). Eco-DEHCH is a type of plasticizer, a substance added to a plastic to make it softer and mo

After Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong decided not to appeal last week’s court ruling, his absence from the country’s top conglomerate was finalized. With Lee in jail, the conglomerate won’t be able to pull off new sizable investments, market observers said. According to lawyer Lee In-jae on Monday, the Samsung heir expressed his will to respect the court ruling that sentenced him to two and half years in prison in a retrial of the former president‘s brib

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., a mid-sized shipyard here, said Monday that it has won a 80.2 billion won ($73 million) order to build two petrochemical carriers for a European company. The deal calls for the shipyard to deliver the vessels by March next year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Hyundai Mipo Dockyard is a listed unit of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., the subholding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. Korea Shipbuilding, which has three shipbui

Korean startup’s technology meets Amway’s global product lineup

Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Monday that it plans to conduct a clinical phase 3 trial for its drug targeted at preventing COVID-19. 　 The company received an approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to begin the last stage of clinical trials for the drug, Foistar, on Friday. “Foistar is convenient to administer as oral medication. Its mechanism is expected to work best in the early phase of viral replications. As the drug would hold efficacy against viral mutations, we hope it

While global travel has come to a virtual standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people have turned to buying goods directly from overseas retailers last year, a delivery service company said Monday. According to Malltail Korea Center, which offers parcel forwarding services for Korean consumers who purchase goods directly from overseas sellers, the number of orders made in 2020 through their platform jumped by about 71 percent from the previous year. Malltail said purchase data also showe

Tmon, Olive Young and Shinsegae ramp up online efforts before gift-giving season

Financially troubled SsangYong Motor Co. said Monday it will cut its employee wages in half in January and February as it struggles with mounting costs amid lackluster sales. In a recent message to employees, SsangYong Motor President and CEO Yea Byung-tae said the decision was part of "desperate measures" amid a sharp decline in sales. In 2020, its vehicle sales fell 19 percent to 107,324 units from 132,799 the previous year. SsangYong Motor's lineup consists of the flagship G4 Rex

Sales of Samsung Electronics Co's new smartphone line, the Galaxy S21, are expected to reach 2.4 million units this year in South Korea, a report showed Monday, as the tech giant tries to expand its presence against Apple Inc.'s iPhone 12. Galaxy S21 sales are estimated to be 40 percent larger than those of the Galaxy S20, which sold about 1.7 million units last year, according to market tracker Counterpoint Research. The Galaxy S20 series had a relatively mediocre performance in its debut yea

KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Monday global robotics expert Dennis Hong will join the company in an advisory role to help boost its efforts to integrate new technology into their services. Hong, a professor and the founding director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA, will advise the company on its broader robotics business, according to KT. The move comes as the telecom operator has recently shifted focus to AI and robotics, and last year acquired a 10