LG Magna kick-starts plant operation in Korea

LG Magna e-Powertrain, a joint venture between South Korea’s LG Electronics and Canada’s Magna International, has kick-started its operation in Korea. The company revealed the inside of its plant located in Incheon on Friday, showing that its operation is going as planned. At its Incheon plant, the new firm will be dedicated to producing electric motors, inverters, onboard chargers and electric drive systems. The joint venture officially kicked off on July 1 under leadership of

Aug. 27, 2021

S. Korean team develops most perfect graphene films

A research team at the Daejeon-based Institute for Basic Science has succeeded in growing single-crystal graphene films that have no wrinkles, folds or adlayers, paving the way for technological advancement in a wide range of fields and industries, including semiconductors, displays and solar cell products. Led by professor Rod Ruoff, the research, titled “Single Crystal, Large-area, Fold-free Monolayer Graphene,” has been published in the leading science journal Nature. Graphene

Aug. 26, 2021

Apple, Google app store models face new threat in South Korea

South Korea is poised to become the first country to impose curbs on the lucrative app stores run by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, setting up a potential showdown with the Biden administration. President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party used its parliamentary supermajority to push out of committee a bill that would ban companies from forcing developers to use their online payment systems. The ruling party’s heft in the National Assembly suggests the Telecommunications

Aug. 25, 2021

Netmarble, NCSoft up ante with new mobile games

Netmarble and NCSoft, two of South Korea’s major game developers, are competing for mobile game players with the back-to-back releases of new titles. Netmarble on Wednesday launched action role-playing mobile game Marvel Future Revolution in some 240 countries, including Korea, and early signs were positive as the game shot to No. 1 on the RPG charts on Apple’s App Store in 78 countries, based on prerelease downloads that were made available Tuesday. The first open-world Marvel

Aug. 25, 2021

Korea to build five hydrogen clusters with W1.2tr

South Korea will spend 1.27 trillion won ($1.07 billion) to establish five hydrogen clusters across the country and roll out necessary infrastructure there, as the nation prepares an aggressive transition to a hydrogen economy, the government said Wednesday. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the five are: a green hydrogen production cluster in North Jeolla Province, a blue hydrogen production cluster in Incheon, a hydrogen storage and transportation cluster in Gangwon

Aug. 25, 2021

LG Electronics introduces cloud-based remote healthcare solution for hospitals

LG Electronics Inc. on Wednesday introduced a cloud-powered remote healthcare solution for hospitals as the tech giant eyes to expand its presence in the telehealth market. LG said its remote healthcare solution with medical-use displays is based on virtual conference platforms and can be used for online diagnoses of patients. Its solution, which the company developed together with local digital healthcare firm eZ Caretech Co., is compatible with hospitals' electronic medical records or hospit

Aug. 25, 2021

Robots march into more business sectors in Korea

The advent of intelligent humanoid robots depicted in sci-fi films is still thought to be a thing of the distant future, but more South Korean companies in a wide range of industries have begun to adopt simpler robots in a bid to remain competitive in the long term. Not only telecom operators and search engines, but also tech startups that rely on online platforms are rushing to deploy robots in a bid to nurture the long-term potential of robots in connection with artificial intelligence, clo

Aug. 24, 2021

Seegene to sell self-sampling swabs in Europe

South Korean biotech firm Seegene has cleared the final hurdle to market in Europe its new sample collection device for COVID-19 diagnostic tests. According to the firm Tuesday, the product, called Combo Swab, has received a CE mark and can be legally commercialized in the EU. A CE mark, required on most goods sold in Europe, shows a product’s conformity to EU’s health, safety and environmental standards. According to Seegene, the sample collection device can be used for its fou

Aug. 24, 2021

DataStreams CEO joins road safety campaign

DataStreams, a local big data and cloud solutions provider, said Tuesday that CEO Lee Young-sang has joined the Children’s Traffic Safety Relay Challenge. The road safety campaign was launched on social media in December last year by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in a bid to raise awareness of children’s road and traffic safety. DataStreams’ chief, as well as four executive members and employees, have joined the relay campaign following an invitation from TSE CEO

Aug. 24, 2021

Medytox hires top law firm, prepares for future lawsuits

South Korean drugmaker Medytox said Tuesday that it has hired Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a top international law firms, to better respond to intellectual property infringements and misappropriations of the company’s botulinum toxin product. Quinn Emanuel is a law firm specializing in intellectual property litigations, and they are widely known here for representing Samsung Electronics in the company‘s lawsuits against Apple and Huawei. “The US International Trad

Aug. 24, 2021

Samsung to pour W240tr into chips, bio and 6G for 3 years

Samsung Electronics will invest a total of 240 trillion won ($206 billion) in the fields of semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals, next-generation telecommunications and other new technologies for the next three years, the South Korean tech giant announced Tuesday. Of the total, some 180 trillion won will be spent on expanding facilities and employment here, not overseas, the company stressed. It did not unveil a breakdown of the investment plan. The announcement came 11 days after the conglome

Aug. 24, 2021

Samsung, SK hynix face mixed outlooks for DRAM chips

Last week, foreign investors sold a net 6.3 trillion won ($5.36 billion) worth of Samsung Electronics shares and 2.4 trillion won of SK hynix shares on the local stock market, amid concerns about a drop in DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips in the coming months. The continued sell-offs of Samsung and SK hynix by foreign investors weakened their share prices. Samsung’s share price ended at 72,500 won Friday, down 12.9 percent from a recent high of 83,300 won recorded on Aug. 5.

Aug. 23, 2021

Celltrion’s anti-COVID drug set for US, EU rollout: report

Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody treatment, the world’s third therapy to be developed for the coronavirus, is likely to enter the US and European markets later this year, a local brokerage said in a report Monday. According to Lee Dong-geon of Shinhan Investment, the South Korean pharmaceutical firm is likely to soon apply for the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for Regkirona, or CT-P59, based on the advisory meetings that the firm previously had w

Aug. 23, 2021

[Advertorial] LG Energy Solution continues to focus on research

Building on its leadership in lithium-ion batteries, widely used in cars, phones and other electronic devices, LG Energy Solution is accelerating its research for next-generation cells, with an aim of debuting solid-state batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries by 2027. The company said Sunday it also will increase its presence in the global battery market via expanding overseas manufacturing facilities. A wholly owned subsidiary of LG Chem in South Korea, the battery maker has been researchi

Aug. 22, 2021

Samsung’s new foldable phones draw strong preorders: reports

Samsung’s new smartphone models -- Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 -- have not been launched yet but preorder figures suggest they are likely to be a super hit. The two models are estimated to have logged a combined 450,000 preorders as of Sunday, according to local media reports that cited unnamed industry sources. Advance orders, which began Aug. 17, are to end Monday. Total preorders could reach at least 600,000 units, they said. If sales of unlocked phones, or phones not locked

Aug. 22, 2021

LG Electronics to spur robot biz with Hyundai Elevator

LG Electronics said Friday it has forged a business partnership with Hyundai Elevator, seeking joint opportunities to integrate robotics technologies into buildings such as residential apartments, office buildings or hospitals. The home appliance giant signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hyundai affiliate that provides various kinds of elevators for both residential and corporate buildings during a ceremony held at LG Science Park in western Seoul. “LG will partner with Hyund

Aug. 20, 2021

[News Focus] Is Lee Jae-yong working at Samsung or not?

South Korean Justice Minister Park Beom-kye on Thursday reiterated his stance that Samsung Group’s de facto chief Lee Jae-yong is not technically working at Samsung and so is not breaking a work ban imposed on him. “It is hard to say Lee is employed at this moment,” Park told reporters on Thursday, repeating what he said a day before. “Lee has not been paid for years, does not have a permanent position and is not a registered executive.” Park then added, &ldquo

Aug. 19, 2021

LG successfully demos 6G data transmission using terahertz spectrum

LG Electronics Inc. on Thursday said it has successfully demonstrated 6G data transmission using the terahertz spectrum as the South Korean tech giant tries to move ahead in the next-generation communication technology. LG succeeded in sending 6G terahertz wireless communication signals 100 meters in an outdoor environment in collaboration with Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe's leading application-oriented research organization, in Berlin last week. LG said it developed a new power amplifier w

Aug. 19, 2021

Genesis unveils design of GV60 electric SUV

Genesis, the independent luxury brand of Hyundai Motor Co., on Thursday unveiled the design of its first all-electric GV60 ahead of its launch later this year. The GV60 is Genesis' first-ever EV based on the same electric-global modular platform (E-GMP) as the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6, and the luxury brand's third SUV following GV80 and GV70. It employs the brand's "Athletic Elegance" design language throughout, which includes signature quad light fixtures up front, matching taill

Aug. 19, 2021

Mobile carriers attempt to expand further beyond telecom business

South Korea’s mobile carriers are adjusting their business strategy to expand their non-telecom businesses in a bid to take a share in the growing demand for digital content delivered via both mobile and fixed-line networks. SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ each witnessed an increase in the share of non-telecom business in their total revenue in the April-June period this year, as more people stayed home and spent time watching video on IPTV and mobile platforms. Top executives of the three ma

Aug. 18, 2021