As the battery technology development cycle gets shorter and shorter, China heats up the race to secure patents, ratcheting up tension in the battery industry.China’s CATL, the world’s No. 1 battery maker by market share, recently registered a patent on a battery technology in just 39 days according
Recently, Chinese semiconductor companies frequently post job openings on Korean job boards. “It is not uncommon for many Chinese companies that have entered semiconductor zones in Korea such as Pangyo to offer high salaries and perks to Korean semiconductor engineers,” said Kim Hyung-jun, head of t
S-OIL said that the company appointed Anwar A. Al-Hejazi, former president of Aramco Asia as its new CEO in an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders and the board of directors on May 9.“Al-Hejazi is an expert in the energy industry, having served as an executive at Aramco, an oil company run
CATL, a Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, is stepping up efforts to expand its global market share. It has joined hands with global EV manufacturers such as Tesla and GM and has started building an research and development center. The Chinese company is bracing itself for a du
China's Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC) plans to start volume production of 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips in the fourth quarter of this year, according to DigiTimes, an IT industry daily published in Taiwan.This is bad news for Korean NAND producers because NAND prices have already droppe
LG Display's small and medium-sized flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) display business is standing at a crossroads. The company entered this sector last year in a bid to take a share of the market dominated by Samsung Electronics. Yet before the company began to chase Samsung Electron
5G telecommunication commercialization could provide a turning point for the Korean semiconductor industry, which has entered a downturn, a Korean research institute said.The Institute for International Trade (IIT) predicted that Korean chipmakers would greatly benefit from a rise in demand for memo
China’s scheme to foster its semiconductor industry has been going awry. The Chinese semiconductor industry is having trouble reaching its goals in both the memory sector, which is dominated by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix of Korea, and the non-memory sector where the United States has begun to
Intel put a halt to its cooperation on 5G modem chips with Tsinghua Unic Group in China as the US-China trade dispute has been escalating to a technology war over 5G mobile telecommunications. The cooperation was put on hold in less than one year since the partnership was announced at the Mobile Wor
South Korean semiconductor companies are keeping their eyes and ears open as China has reportedly proposed to increase its U.S. semiconductor purchases to US$200 billion (225.90 trillion won) in the next six years, which is about a five-fold increase from the current level. However, many experts say
China is aiming to raise its self-sufficiency ratio in the semiconductor industry to at least 70 percent by 2025. Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. (JHICC), which has been playing a critical role in the efforts, has recently given up on DRAM development after UMC, a Taiwanese foundry that develop
A new chicken game has started in the global semiconductor industry. Leading companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are investing aggressively to keep Chinese semiconductor producers in check. Chinese semiconductor maker Fujian Jinhua scratched off its plan to mass-produce DRAMs due to p
As Samsung Electronics's earnings shock shows that the memory semiconductor business has shifted into a downturn, semiconductor industry experts forecast that Chinese memory makers will slow down their aggressive investment drive. Some expect that China's memory mass-production will be postp
Chinese display maker BOE laid out a plan to build a 6th-generation flexible organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display production line by investing more than 7 trillion won (US$6.3 billion). The announcement signaled the start of China’s full-scale promotion of the display industry at the nation
SK Hynix has come up with a system to let excellent engineers continue to work even after the legal retirement age of 60. The chipmaker announced on Dec. 27 that it would introduce a new system that will enable engineers with high technical skills to work regardless of their retirement ages. As a re
The landscape of the Chinese smartphone market may change as Apple is struggling due to its patent disputes with Qualcomm.In a preliminary ruling on Nov. 30, a Chinese court upheld Qualcomm's claim that the iPhone violated its patents, preventing the sales of Apple’s seven models, including the
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are not shocked at all by a recent drop in DRAM prices as they are already well prepared for a downtrend.According to market research firm DRAMeXchange, the price of DDR4 8Gb DRAM products for use in PCs reached US$7.31 per unit at the end of last month, down 10.74%
The U.S. government has escalated its trade war with China by restricting exports of U.S. semiconductor production equipment to a Chinese state-backed chipmaker.According to wire reports, the U.S. Department of Commerce said on Oct. 30 that it had put Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. (JHICC) on
Paraxylene (PX), which has been a cash cow for Korean refiners so far this year, is expected to become an "ugly duckling" next year. Korean refining companies benefited from a rise in its price due to a supply shortage this year. But industry experts say that it will be difficult for Korean companie
Foxconn (Hong Hai Precision Industry) Group, well known for manufacturing the Apple iPhone, is preparing to enter the memory semiconductor business. As China is set to begin to produce memory chips next year following Taiwan’s reattempt to enter the memory semiconductor market, there are growing con