Jeju Air, South Korea's biggest low-cost carrier, said Tuesday its net losses widened in the third quarter from a year earlier due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry. Net losses deepened to 66.8 billion won (US$60 million) in the three months that ended in September from 30.14 billion won in the same period of last year, the company said in a statement. "Suspended flights on profitable international routes amid the pandemic continued to weigh on the quarterly res

German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim has returned Bridge Biotherapeutics’ BBT-877, a novel drug pipeline for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the South Korean company said Tuesday. Bridge Biotherapeutics will regain full global rights to the pipeline. It does not have to return the 45 million euro ($53.22 million) down payment. BI’s decision to terminate the research was based on evidence of toxicity, Bridge Biotherapeutics explained in a regulatory filing, adding that the comp

Pfizer’s positive clinical phase 3 midterm report of its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine lends optimism to studies worldwide working to develop an armor against the pandemic, pharmaceutical industry insiders in Korea opined Tuesday. “The US company’s stride does not mean that other vaccine pursuits are meaningless or futile at all,“ one of the insiders mentioned. With the remarkable feats being achieved through the endeavors of various global pharmas, COVID-19 vaccines are taki

South Korean steel maker Posco said Tuesday it held a completion ceremony for a facility to reduce pollution at its Pohang steel mill’s sinter plant. According to Posco, its sinter plants are where the steel producer mixes iron ore fines with other fine materials at high temperatures into sintered ores, which can then be used to make steel. The process creates air pollution, including nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, which are a source of fine dust. The new facility converts the n

Boston Dynamics on Hyundai’s radar to find robots suitable for self-driving technology

SK IE Technology, a wholly owned electric vehicle battery material subsidiary under SK Innovation, began the operation of a separator factory recently completed in Changzhou, China, the company said Tuesday. Equipped with an annual production capacity of 340 million square meters, the new plant will ramp up SKIET’s total capacity to 870 million square meters. When additional plants are completed in Poland and China, the figure will spike to 1.87 billion square meters by 2023. Separat

SK Telecom, South Korea‘s leading telecommunications firm, said Tuesday that it has introduced a new subscription service for Microsoft‘s Xbox game console in South Korea. The new subscription service bundle is comprised of the latest edition of Microsoft’s Xbox -- the Xbox Series X or Series S -- and a 5G and cloud-based game streaming service, which offers around 100 games for the game console, as well as computers and mobile devices. According to SKT, Korea is currently

New white paper deals with 145 recommendations and regulatory issues across 20 industries

South Korean businesses will need to keep an eye on US President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to invest in clean energy and on his softer approach to trade deals ultimately to take advantage of the incoming administration’s policies, the head of the Korea International Trade Association said Tuesday. “South Korean businesses should focus on how different the Biden administration will be from the Trump administration when it comes to economic and trade policy,” said KITA Chai

About half of the employees at small and medium-sized companies who are taking time off from work are doing so due to business deterioration amid the COVID-19 pandemic, statistics showed Monday. According to the Korea Small Business Institute and Statistics Korea, among the 712,000 employees at small and medium-sized enterprises who were on temporary leave as of September, 50.1 percent, or 357,000, had taken leave due to a business slump or company shutdown. Small and medium-sized companies

South Korean fuel cell maker Doosan Fuel Cell Co. said Tuesday it has signed a preliminary deal with Singaporean shipper Navig8 to develop fuel cells for ships. Under the deal, Doosan Fuel Cell will provide solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), energy conversion devices generating electricity, for a 50,000-ton ship of Navig8, while the Singaporean shipping company will offer technologies to mount SOFCs on the ship. SOFCs for the 50,000-ton ship will be used to propel the vessel and generate electri

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. said Tuesday it will produce the all-new Tucson SUV in its US plant to meet local demand for SUV models. Hyundai Motor plans to produce the 2022 Tucson gasoline and gasoline hybrid models in the Alabama plant next year for the sale of the compact SUV in the US market starting early next year, the company said in a statement. The Tucson with a gasoline and a gasoline hybrid engine will also be manufactured in Hyundai's main Ulsan plant in South Korea. The 2022

US streaming giant Netflix Inc. is estimated to have brought in record-high paid subscriptions in South Korea last month, industry data showed Tuesday. An estimated 3.62 million viewers in South Korea presumably paid 51.4 billion won ($45.9 million) for subscriptions in October, almost twofold from 26.2 billion won in the same period a year earlier, according to the data from industry tracker WiseApp. The data showed that users in their 20s accounted for 36 percent of last month's paid users,

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday it has received a supplier award from French automaker Renault SA as the South Korean tech powerhouse eyes to expand its presence in the vehicle component business. LG was honored with an Innovation award at this year's Renault Supplier Awards for its vehicle display products. This is the third time that LG has been recognized by Renault with a supplier award following its recognition in 2014 and 2017. Renault praised LG's 9.3-inch center information displa

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest wireless carrier, said Tuesday it released Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox All Access service for the local market, offering gamers the US tech giant's latest game console as well as its cloud gaming service. The new subscription service bundles Microsoft's new console -- the Xbox Series X or Series S -- and its game streaming service -- 5GX Cloud Game -- launched in September for the local market in partnership with SK Telecom. South Korea is the only Asian countr