Doosan Group said Thursday that its chairman Park Jeong-won and other executives will forgo their salaries by 30 percent as part of efforts to help normalize troubled affiliate Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction. Doosan Group said the pay cuts will affect executives of all of its affiliates, including Doosan Heavy, beginning this month. Still, no specific time frame was given for when the pay cuts will remain in effect. Doosan Heavy, South Korea's largest power equipment maker, said ab

SK Innovation has decided to dispatch employees to its electric vehicle battery plant in Hungary, where it has less workforce presence than other Korean EV battery manufacturers. According to SK Innovation, the company will dispatch 300 staff members on a chartered flight to Hungary on April 5 to support the construction of its second EV battery plant in Komarom, as global travel restrictions have limited the deployment of necessary personnel to the construction site. “Though SK Innov

Korean game company NCSoft said Thursday it will launch a four-day workweek to create a safer working environment and support families with children, amid the worsening novel coronavirus pandemic. The company will operate a four-day workweek for four weeks from this weekend until April 29, employing flexible work schedules and allowing telecommuting for those pregnant or with underlying conditions. “All 4,000 staff members will be given paid leave every week during the period, which

The Korea Electric Power Corp. on Thursday excluded Chinese firms from entering a bid for its submarine power cable project. According to an online notice posting, only countries that are members of the Government Procurement Agreement of the World Trade Organization are eligible for the international bidding of #3HVDC (high voltage, direct current) submarine power cable project connecting Wando, an island off the coast of South Jeolla Province, and Jeju Island. China is not a member of the

Despite the ambivalent sentiments about COVID-19 vaccine development, South Korean biologics company Celltrion said it was determined to continue with the project. Celltrion on Thursday said it was now screening to select the most effective antibodies to neutralize the virus behind the pandemic with the Korea Centers for Disease Control. The company aims to finish the work in a couple of weeks, after which it will start mass production of the therapeutics for clinical studies while simultane

Danaher said Thursday it has launched Cytiva -- formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences, which it acquired for $21.4 billion -- aiming to completely rebrand the biologics side of General Electric’s business. Cytiva’s projects, spanning from cell and gene therapies to protein research, biosimilar and novel biologics drug development, are highly in demand amid the COVID-19, according to the Cytiva CEO and president, Emmanuel Ligner. After the transition from GE Healthcare Life Science

Samsung, LG, Hyundai, SK offer active support for SMEs in past months

  South Korea’s Tmon announced Thursday that it posted its first monthly operating profit in 10 years, and plans to get listed next year. The firm recorded 160 million won ($130,000) operating profit last month, becoming the first local e-commerce platform operator to be in the black. The improvement in revenue began to materialize since the fourth quarter of last year, and will hopefully continue, a company official said. Tmon this year has seen a 44 percent increase in the numb

How investors can spur better corporate governance

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday two more employees have contracted the novel coronavirus following overseas business trips. The company said two employees who work at its factory in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, tested positive for COVID-19 after they went to Brazil. The two, who work for its mobile business unit, departed for Brazil together in early February and arrived back in South Korea on Monday. Samsung said there will be no shutdown of its plants, since the two had been u

South Korea saw a record-low number of air passengers last month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday, as countries around the globe impose lockdowns and restrict travel. The number of air passengers stood at 1.74 million in March, according to data from the Korea Civil Aviation Association (KCA). This is the first time that the figure has fallen below 2 million since the country started to record such statistics from 1997. "The figure is based on real-time sta

South Korean game developer WeMade said Wednesday it has won a lawsuit against a Chinese game company for violating a license contract and dodging royalties. According to WeMade, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration on March 27 ordered Hangzhou Jiuling Network Technology to pay WeMade 85.2 billion won ($69.1 million) for violating the intellectual property license agreement it had signed with the Korean company. In September 2017, Jiuling -- a subs

Posco Chemical said Wednesday it has signed a long-term supply deal with China’s Huayou Cobalt for cathode materials, a key material for electric vehicle batteries. According to the company, Huayou Cobalt -- the world’s biggest cobalt supplier -- will supply 76,300 metric tons of precursors until December 2022. The exact size of the deal is unknown. Precursor is an immediate product used in producing cathode materials, and cathode is a one of the four key components of a lithium

According to market tracker SNE Research on Tuesday, the global market share of Korea’s three major EV battery manufacturers -- LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation -- doubled to 42 percent in February up 20.9 percent on-year, surpassing the 40 percent mark for the first time. In the same period, the global market share of Chinese EV batteries shrank from 32.8 percent to 11.1 percent, while that of Japanese firms surged to 45.8 percent from 33.2 percent. (kbw@heraldcorp.com)

Water sommelier says demand for water quality differs among countries, awareness on premium water will increase in Korea