South Korean companies operating in virus-stricken Southeast Asian countries have asked for the government’s help in procuring COVID-19 vaccines for its workers there, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Wednesday. They also called for relaxed quarantine requirements on inbound business travel to Korea at a recent online meeting with ministry officials. The meeting was organized as a number of Southeast Asian countries are reporting explosive surges in infections driven by

iPhones could be made available for purchase at LG Best Shops across South Korea as early as next month, after LG Electronics cleared a key hurdle – opposition from small phone distributors. The Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership, a private consensus-based body promoting shared growth between big and small businesses, said Wednesday that LG Electronics has reached a new agreement with the Korea Mobile Distribution Association, representing the phone distributors, regarding its i

Experts warn semiconductor scarcity will persist as chipmakers build new plants

Samsung Biologics, a biopharmaceutical unit of South Korea‘s top conglomerate Samsung Group, posted all-time high earnings for the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company’s sales in the April-June period reached 412.2 billion won ($357.1 million), up 34 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit soared 106 percent on-year to reach 166.8 billion won during the same period. Samsung Biologics said the improved earnings were backed by new contra

Factory workers at Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, SK hynix and other major manufacturers in South Korea began getting their vaccine shots on Tuesday, the health authorities said. They are part of the 303,159 workers from 43 large companies that operate large production facilities here and have in-house clinics, covered by the country’s first factory vaccine rollout program, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The shots to be injected have changed from Mod

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory provider, surpassed the 10 trillion-won ($8.69 billion) mark in quarterly sales for the first time in three years amid a continuing chip boom. According to the chipmaker’s earnings announcement Tuesday, the company recorded 10.3 trillion won in sales in the April-June period, up 20 percent from the same period last year, owing to the improved conditions in the memory market since early this year. The chipmaker last breached the 10 trill

Samsung Electronics will take the lead in widening the foldable smartphone market by offering more refined and durable products this year, the company‘s executive in charge of the mobile phone business said Tuesday. Roh Tae-moon, president of Samsung Mobile, pledged to provide improved foldable devices at the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event slated for Aug. 11 through a message posted on the company’s newsroom homepage. “The upcoming Galaxy Z Fold combines the very be

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday its new curved gaming monitor with Mini LED display will be launched this week. The Odyssey Neo G9 will hit the shelves in South Korea on Thursday with a price of 2.4 million won ($2,085). It will be globally available by Aug. 9, according to the tech giant. The latest product is the industry's first curved gaming monitor with Mini LED display, Samsung said. It uses the Quantum Mini LED light source that is 1/40 the height of a conventional LED, which is al

The mix of digital assets and metaverse ecosystem infuses energy into fledgling blockchain marketplace based on nonfungible tokens

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion has submitted for global review the results of an animal study which it said suggested the efficacy of its COVID-19 treatment Regkirona against the delta variant, the firm said Monday. It also added that its US partner tasked with developing an inhaled version of the monoclonal antibody treatment also known as CT-P59 or regdanvimab has secured a $7 million funding from the US Army Medical Research & Development Command. According to the compan

South Korean government spending on research equipment and facilities declined during the five years ending in 2019, but the country spent more on research and development during the same time frame, a report said Sunday. According to the paper by the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning based on 2019 data, the government spent 678.5 billion won ($588.97 million) on research hardware in 2019, down from 930.2 billion won in 2017 and 971.1 billion won in 2015. Over the 2015-201

AI-created digital avatars make inroads into marketing world

German material technology company Merck said Friday it has developed a new lineup of green solvents for use in photolithographic processes in semiconductor manufacturing. The new solvent lineup is called AZ 910 Remover, which according to the firm is N-methylpyrrolidone-free solvent designed for faster dissolution of photoresist patterns in a cost-effective and greener way with its outstanding resist-dissolution performance. Semiconductor production facilities traditionally use negative

Samsung Electronics said Friday its sales of air conditioners have more than doubled so far this month, compared to a year ago, due to the sweltering heat. From July 1 to 22, the company saw its sales of air conditioners spike more than twice from the same period in 2020, the company said. Sales of Bespoke Wind-free Gallery, the company’s highest-end air conditioner, have jumped more than 95 percent in July compared to a year earlier. To further drive sales, Samsung is offering up to

Expectations are high that Samsung Electronics, which for months deliberated on a new, $17 billion US investment plan, may finally be ready to make an official announcement in August. According to industry sources on Friday, Samsung is accelerating the internal process for concluding its plan to construct a new chip fabrication line for foundry in the US. Some news reports said Thursday that the City of Austin in Texas, where the South Korean firm already has a chip plant up and running, is