South Korea's advanced materials maker SKC said Monday that it had decided on a location in Vietnam’s northeastern city of Hai Phong to establish a manufacturing plant for biodegradable plastics, as it pushes to expand its eco-friendly business. Amid mounting global calls to reduce plastic waste, the international market size for bioplastics is expected to grow at an annual rate of over 20 percent. SKC and its joint venture Ecovance officials and top executives visited Vietnam on Fr

Hyundai Engineering on Thursday secured an order from US energy firm GTL Americas to build a plant in the US that will turn natural gas into high-grade diesel, naphtha and jet fuel. Under the project, the gas-to-liquid or GTL facility will be established near the city of Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas, to generate some 41,000 barrels of fuel per day, including synthetic diesel or high cetane synthetic fuel, and paraffinic synthetic naphtha. The GTL procedure is a high-tech process that g

Apple’s latest flagship smartphone series will likely launch in South Korea next month, according to industry sources Friday. Apple is preparing to sell its new smartphones -- the iPhone15, iPhone15 Plus, iPhone15 Pro and iPhone15 Pro Max -- on Oct. 13 in Korea, taking preorders a week ahead of the official release here, sources said. If the tech giant rolls out its latest smartphone lineup on that date in Korea, it will be about a month after the company first unveiled the iPhone 15 serie

US chipmaker accused of forcing Samsung Electronics to purchase components for years

SK Pharmteco, a global contract development and manufacturing organization under Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Wednesday that it has acquired the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a US cell and gene therapy firm. The Korean firm exercised its right to acquire a controlling stake in CBM to obtain the management right of the Philadelphia-based cell and gene therapy CDMO, offering pre-clinical to commercial phase therapies. The right was given when SK Pharmteco made its capital investment i

Construction and engineering firm Posco Eco & Challenge unveiled on Tuesday a new vision to multiply its corporate valuation tenfold by 2035, zeroing in on its renewed commitment to spearheading growth in the eco-friendly space. Under the vision, it is aiming to reach 25 trillion won ($18.9 billion) in sales and 2 trillion won in operating profit by 2035, which would help boost its corporate value, the firm said. “Using Posco E&C's sturdy foundation as the bedrock, we are layi

Non-fungible token platform company Art Token said Monday that it recently joined hands with Anicube Entertainment, a music metaverse platform company, in a move to drive the global expansion of Korean digital art content. The latest partnership was inked at Art Token's headquarters in Gangnam, southern Seoul earlier last week, with top executives including Art Token CEO Hong Ji-sook and Anicube Content Market Business Head Lee Cheol-jae in attendance. Under the agreement, Art Token aims

Mercedes-Benz Korea CEO Mathias Vaitl, whose official term as CEO started earlier this month, speaks at the awards ceremony for the “Korea TechMasters” technical skills competition held at the Mercedes-Benz Korea Training Academy in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. The German carmaker’s two separate automotive training programs, Ausbildung and Automotive Mechatronic Traineeship, also kicked off this year’s sessions a day prior. (Mercedes-Benz Korea)

South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corp. has suggested to the Ukraine government ways of improving the war-torn country's telecom infrastructure and operating with energy efficiency, upon its participation at a forum hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Thursday. KT was among the 18 state-run and private firms specializing in housing, public water supply, airports, environmental technology, construction, vehicle

Korean science communicator says now is crucial time to establish right culture for science

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (right) inspected the construction process at chip-making affiliate SK hynix's Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in Gyeonggi Province, upon his visit to the site with the latter's CEO, Park Jung-ho (left) on Friday. Calling it the "most thoroughly and strategically planned project" in SK hynix history, Chey asked for the utmost efforts in the cluster's success. With a 120 trillion won ($90.3 billion) investment, the world's second-largest m

Samsung Display has gained an upper hand in its legal fight over patent infringement against its Chinese rival BOE Technology, as the US trade agency backed the Korean firm's claims. On Monday, the US International Trade Commission, an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency, upheld all interpretations of Samsung’s claims in its five patent infringement cases against the Chinese firm. The latest pretrial order comes after a hearing in June to examine eight technical terms with diff

Apartment complexes are seen in Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Thursday. A city construction commitee under the Seoul Metropolitan Government passed a revision to relax reconstruction regulations placed on aging apartment complexes in the wealthy neighborhood. With the passage of the plan, obsolete buildings can be rebuilt as high-rise complexes with 50-plus floors. (Yonhap)

New AI, data science department at top university guarantees graduates jobs

By Winter Choi Visit the trendiest places and you’ll be bound to see them: turntables flanked by 33’s, album art on the wall, maybe even a ghettoblaster if you’re lucky. Retro audio formats have enjoyed a comeback in recent years. And with people spending more time at home during the pandemic – and spending more money on goods than experiences – sales are higher than ever. But are people buying physical formats for the music, or only to display them on a shelf? Classic audio