Visitors are looking around electronic products displayed at the 11th Korea Smart Device x Small Electronics Trade Show 2021, an annual trade fair for small electronics. Robot speakers are showing off their moves at a booth set up in the trade show.  Small home refrigerators featuring cute character designs attract visitors to the trade fair. “Watch YouTube videos in an old-fashion way!” A local company exhibits smartphone holders look like old-fashioned TVs. An exhibitor de

Fifteen local startups have officially reached unicorn status, according to the Ministry of SME and Startups on Tuesday. The ministry said that three startups -- Zigbang, Dunamu, and Market Kurly -- have joined a select group of firms with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Not all companies with high valuations are given the unicorn status. Unicorn companies should neither be listed on the stock exchange nor merged with another company. Coupang, for instance, was excluded from the group of loc

Rush to retire nuclear reactors and switch to renewables leaves nation more vulnerable to power crisis

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Friday it has signed orders worth a combined 1.56 trillion won ($ 1.4 billion) to build seven LNG carriers. A 678 billion-won deal with an Asian company calls for Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a unit of KSOE, to construct three LNG carriers by the end of 2024, KSOE said in a regulatory filing. Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., another unit of KSOE, has obtained a 462.7 billion-won deal with a European company to build two LNG carr

South Korean aerospace and defense firm LIG Nex1 said Friday it had established a committee dedicated to overseeing the company’s operations and initiatives in environmental, social and governance fields. The committee will designate one of the outside directors as the chairman and hold regular semi-annual meetings and occasional meetings to set strategies and policies for the firm’s long-term ESG goals. Since 2009, LIG Nex1 has had a corporate social responsibility task force.

Sales of summer appliances, including air conditioners and fans, are soaring in South Korea, industry sources said Friday, as the sweltering heat continues to scorch the country. With the daily temperature reaching as high as 38 C in some regions, demand for air conditioners and other cooling appliances is also going up with the stay-at-home trend remaining solid amid the fourth wave of the pandemic here, people in the electronics industry said. Samsung Electronics Co. said its domestic air co

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, is running a special trade-in program in the United States for its upcoming new foldable smartphones, industry insiders said Friday, amid its push to expand its customer base of foldable handsets. Samsung's US unit recently opened a reservation page that allows people to exchange up to two of their old devices for a new foldable smartphone to be launched next month. The South Korean tech giant earlier this week confirmed that its n

Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday it has released upgraded software-defined networking (SDN) solutions to help mobile operators and enterprises better manage their 5G networks. The South Korean tech giant said its new SDN solutions will support enterprises in various sectors, including education, retail and energy, introducing new 5G application, services and infrastructure. SDN is a network architecture approach that enables the network to be easily controlled via software solutions. It all

GS Engineering & Construction is partnering with the city of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, to invest in green energy, the company announced Wednesday. The construction company said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pohang city government to build solar energy and hydrogen fuel cell energy production plants set to run in the Yeongilman 4th General Industrial Complex. The partnership is in line with Pohang’s commitment to turn the area into a carbon-neutral zone b

Kia Corp., South Korea's No. 2 carmaker, said Thursday its second-quarter net profit soared more than 10-fold from a year earlier on a low base effect and strong sales of sports utility vehicles (SUVs). Net profit in the April-June period stood at 1.34 trillion won ($1.2 billion), skyrocketing 963.2 percent from a year earlier when its sales slumped amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the automaker said in a regulatory briefing. Operating profit shot up 924.5 percent on-year to 1.5 trillion won in the

Posco chemical’s operating profit in the second quarter jumped a whopping 773.9 percent to 35.6 billion won ($30.9 million) on-year, the company announced Thursday. The refractory and secondary battery materials making unit of South Korean steel giant Posco not only logged record quarterly results in operating profit, but also in revenue, enjoying 480 billion won, a 41.1 percent surge in the same period. Posco Chemical is the country’s only firm that manufactures both cathodes

Engineering and construction company Daewoo E&C is aiming at expanding its global footprint by taking part in more overseas projects, the company said, as it hopes to keep their momentum rolling from last year’s successful performance. Earlier this year, the company announced it had secured a contract for multiple projects worth 2.9 trillion won ($2.52 billion) to build the Grand Port of Al Faw in Iraq -- a major state initiative by the Iraqi government with plans to make it a global

South Korean household goods and cosmetics maker LG Household & Health Care Ltd. said Thursday its net profit surged to a record high in the second quarter this year, thanks to robust sales of luxury-brand cosmetics in China. In the April-June period, the company's net income expanded 10.6 percent on-year to 226.4 billion won ($196.8 million), the company said in a statement posted on its website. Its operating profit increased 10.7 percent on-year to 335.8 billion won, with sales growing

South Korea’s leading steelmaker Posco saw its best-ever performance in the second quarter this year, the company announced Thursday, surpassing the 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) mark in quarterly operating profit for the first time since the company opened up earnings to public in 2006. Posco and its affiliates posted a combined operating profit of 2.2 trillion won in the second quarter this year, achieving a whopping 1,212.2 percent on-year increase. The combined sales stood at 18.3 t

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker, said Thursday its second-quarter net profit nearly quadrupled compared with a year earlier on strong demand for its vehicles that offset output disruptions by chip shortages. Net profit for the April-June quarter jumped to 1.52 trillion won ($1.3 billion) from 377.27 billion won in the same period last year, the company said in a statement. "Robust sales of high-end vehicles in the domestic and US markets helped offset sales decline in ot