LG Electronics has officially given up smartphones, but its very last project -- the first rollable smartphone -- will see the light of day, even though it will not be for sale. The South Korean firm confirmed Monday that it is considering producing a limited volume of Rollable phones for internal use. “Development of the Rollable was completed before the management’s decision to end the phone business,” said a company official. “The exact timing or volume of the

Samsung Biologics is working to expedite preparations to start churning out “hundreds of millions” of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in early second half, the company said Sunday. At its sterile drug manufacturing facility in Songdo, Incheon, which is one of the largest in the world, the South Korean pharmaceutical will handle the fill and finish process of the production of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s messenger-RNA based COVID-19 jab. The firm signed a contract with Mo

South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited a plant construction site of SK Innovation Co., the country‘s leading battery maker, in the United States on Saturday. “This plant symbolizes friendship and high-tech cooperation between South Korea and the United States,” Moon said in a speech at the factory in the state of Georgia. “South Korean firms are best partners in the battery field. Cooperation in the sector offers a good opportunity for the US and South Korea to devel

SK hynix, South Korea's second-largest chipmaker, on Friday said it has earned approval from Europe's antitrust watchdog for its acquisition of Intel Corp.'s NAND business. SK hynix said it received unconditional clearance from the European Commission for its takeover of Intel's non-volatile memory unit. Last October, SK hynix signed a deal to buy Intel's NAND business for $9 billion, which includes the US firm's solid state drive business and a NAND flash chip plant in Dalian, China. Followin

South Korea’s top semiconductor manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are expected to enjoy a super cycle in the global memory chip market until 2023, industry sources said Friday. According to international market tracker IC Insights, global sales of memory chips will reach a record high of $180.4 billion in 2022. The record for global memory sales was $163.3 billion in 2018, when manufacturers benefited from price hikes on rising demand during a so-called super memory cyc

A panel of medical experts on Friday said the vaccine for the novel coronavirus developed by US pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc. showed enough efficacy and safety, and recommended the use of the product. In the previous two rounds of review on Moderna's two full-dose regimen, the panel already concluded that the product is eligible for all adults. The Moderna vaccine, finally approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, marks the country's fourth COVID-19 vaccine, following the ones by

The chief of the International Vaccine Institute said Thursday that he feels positive about the possibility of South Korea becoming an Asian manufacturing hub for COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Jerome Kim, director general of the Seoul-based IVI, made the remarks during a conservation with Korea Society President Tom Byrne, released via YouTube. When asked if Korea has what it takes to become an Asian vaccine production hub in 6 to 9 months, he responded: “I think the short answer is yes.&rdqu

the logo of American entertainment company Netflix is pictured in Paris

Monthly active users of the US video streaming service Netflix Inc. in South Korea recorded a decline in the past three months, data showed Thursday, as the platform faces a slowdown in global subscriber growth and increasing competition from local players. Netflix's monthly active users in the country last month stood at 8.08 million, down 1.9 percent from 8.24 million in March, according to the data from market researcher Nielsen Koreanclick. The latest figure marks a dip since the platform

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday that it will team up with Google LLC to deliver a new smartwatch operating system (OS), as they seek to better compete with Apple Inc. in the wearables market. Yoon Jang-hyun, who heads Samsung's software development team, said in an editorial that the South Korean tech giant will develop a unified smartwatch platform with Google. Samsung currently uses Tizen OS for its Galaxy smartwatches, while Google offers Wear OS. Their OS partnership was first unve

In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea could step up as a global vaccine factory, if players unite to ramp up the country’s total production capacity, already the world’s second-largest, officials and industry insiders said Wednesday. Talks have already begun among local biopharmaceuticals to forge a consortium for co-production of the doses -- in particular the entirely new type of mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the sources said.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Wednesday departed for the United States, raising expectations about his visit to SK Innovation’s battery plant in Georgia, and a possible pledge for additional investments. Chey boarded a plane bound for a US city, with a handful of group officials. SK Group declined to reveal the destination of Chey’s flight. He is among the several Korean business leaders who are visiting the US in time for the first summit meeting between Presidents Moon

A group of South Korean biopharmaceutical companies are in talks to forge a consortium for co-production of COVID-19 vaccines in anticipation of a patent waiver, industry sources said Tuesday. According to the bio industry insiders who declined to be named, the talks involve about 10 local firms including Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Genexine, GC Pharma, GeneOne Life Science, ST Pharm, as well as Seoul National University, Pohang University of Science and Technology and Myongji Medical Foundation. T

Local demand for biotech company GC Pharma‘s experimental plasma treatment against the new coronavirus remains even after the company failed to receive conditional use approval here, according to industry sources Tuesday. According to sources, Kyungpook National University Hospital on Friday received an emergency use authorization for the treatment, just three days after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety rejected GC Pharma‘s application for conditional use. In South Korea, expe

SK hynix is considering a complete takeover of domestic foundry company Key Foundry, of which it holds a 49.8 percent stake in, industry sources said Tuesday. Key Foundry was separated from Magnachip last year, and become an independent 8-inch wafer foundry firm operating in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. SK hynix currently controls 49.8 percent of the company via a private equity fund set up by Magnus PEF. The rest – a 50 percent stake plus one share-- is held by the fund&rsquo