The South Korean government announced that a partial amendment to the Commercial Act, a full amendment to the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act and a legislative proposal for the Financial Group Supervision Act were approved at the cabinet meeting on Aug. 25. The government is anticipating that
The International Contractors Association of Korea announced on Aug. 24 that the value of orders South Korean builders received abroad this year totaled US$17.8 billion, up 30 percent from a year ago.Specifically, the value includes US$8 billion derived from the Middle East whereas it was US$4.2 bil
LG Chem and Malaysian chemical company Petronas Chemical Group (PCG) will jointly build a nitrile butadiene (NB) latex plant in Malaysia.PCG announced on Aug. 24 that it has signed a contract with LG Chem to build an NB latex plant with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons at the Pengerang Petrochemic
With economic uncertainties increasing in the wake of COVID-19, foreign currency deposits hit an all-time high yet again based on an increasing demand for the U.S. dollar. In addition, securities companies’ U.S. dollar demand increased along with overseas stock investment.The Bank of Korea announced
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has recently announced that South Korea’s pharmaceutical market size was estimated at 24,310 billion won in 2019, up 5.2 percent from 23,117.5 billion in 2018.The total production amount of pharmaceuticals stood at 22,313.2 billion, which is a 5.7 percent
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at jinmyung.choi@nhqv.com. -- Ed. LIG Nex1’s 1H20 results confirm that the firm has remained free from Covid-19 effects. We forecast stable domestic demand thanks to the government’s expanded budget for domestic weapons system
The fund preparing to enter the South Korean stock market is currently amounting to 260 trillion won. Especially, individual investors’ money is continuing to increase to approximately 50 percent of the fund.The Korea Financial Investment Association announced on Aug. 23 that the sum of the cash man
The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) said in its report on Aug. 21 that the latest U.S. restrictions on Huawei, which are to block Huawei’s access to all types of semiconductors, are likely to directly affect South Korean companies supplying semiconductors to Huawei and yet t
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on Aug. 23 that foreign workers having difficulty returning to their home countries after their stay or work in South Korea due to COVID-19 can be given job opportunities in farming and fishing villages for up to three months along with loans for living
National Security Office Director Suh Hoon met with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in Busan on Aug. 22. They agreed to make efforts so that Chinese President Xi Jinping can visit South Korea once COVID-19 subsides.The dip
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at ys.jung@nhqv.com. -- Ed. SCFI has upped 14% YTD. The pace of increase in freight rates for US routes has been gaining steam in 3Q20 in line with: 1) fleet supply control; and 2) a recovery in trade volume. Given the strong
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo had video meetings with Czech Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček and the republic’s envoy for nuclear energy Jaroslav Mil on Aug. 19 and 20. Their discussions covered bilateral cooperation in various fields such as industry, technology and e
South Korea’s external debt amounted to US$503.1 billion as of the end of June 2020, rising US$17.2 billion from the previous quarter, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said on Aug. 20.Of the total, short-term debt accounted for US$154.3 billion, up US$5.7 billion quarter-on-quarter, while long-te
The amendment to the Insurance Business Act tabled in June by Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers Park Yong-jin and Lee Yong-woo is scheduled to be discussed in the regular session of the National Assembly next month.At present, each South Korean insurance company’s subsidiary bond and stock holding
Immunomedics, Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company in the area of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), announced on Aug. 17 (local time) that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Prior Approval Supplement (PAS) for Samsung Biologics to produce commercial-scale hRS7, the antib
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on Aug. 19 that it developed the Hi-COVIDNet, which is an artificial intelligence model capable of predicting the two-week number of COVID-19 infectees from abroad. The institute explained that its prediction is 35 percent more
Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced on Aug. 18 that it will announce the results of its clinical trial and pre-clinical trial research on LAPSTriple Agonist (HM15211) at the International Liver Congress of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), which will be held online from Aug.27-2
Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Chung Seung-il attended the 2020 Energy Strategy Forum on Aug. 19 and remarked that the South Korean government would invest a total of 586.6 billion won next year in order to assist in hydrogen vehicle R&D and popularization, hydrogen production and suppl
The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant of the United Arab Emirates has started to deliver clean electricity to the Middle East country.Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC) announced on Aug. 19 that Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant has successfully conne
Google, which accounts for 90 percent of the South Korean app market together with Apple, is reportedly moving to receive 30 percent of all app-related payments as fees. Under the circumstances, content providers’ burden is predicted to explode.Google has reportedly decided to expand the fees from g