Big South Korean companies are exiting China one after another. Business uncertainties are being fueled by fiercer competition and declining profitability in the Chinese market coupled with the U.S. government’s checks on China and policy changes by Chinese government authorities.Lotte Chemical sold
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Express announced a consumer protection policy on March 14 that offers unconditional returns and refunds within 90 days for cross-border online purchases. Additionally, it has officially launched a customer service hotline and plans to invest about 1.5 trillion won o
In January, Korean display companies received a shocking report card. According to market research firm DSCC, Samsung Display, which held 36% of the market share in the foldable market and was considered the future of the industry, lost its first-place position to China’s BOE, which captured 42% in
The value of overseas construction orders to Korean contractors exceeded US$30 billion for the fourth year in a row in 2023. Korean builders’ target for 2024 is US$40 billion. They have been looking for opportunities in overseas markets as the Korean real estate market has been slumping for a long t
After the Korean government has announced a strategy to secure 33 key minerals used in high-tech industries, including lithium and graphite, by reducing its dependence on China to 50 percent by 2030, Korea’s dependence on China for some key items began to shrink in 2023.Korea’s lithium hydroxide imp
The United States targeting Chinese-made goods as part of its supply chain localization and trade war strategies is expected to affect China’s shipbuilding industry after the Chinese semiconductor industry.According to the Financial Times (FT) and other foreign media outlets, U.S. President Joe Bide
Chinese online shopping platforms AliExpress, Temu, Shine and other overseas business operators over a certain size will be required to have representatives in Korea. This new policy is aimed at making them responsible for consumer protection.Unlike AliExpress, which currently has a legal entity in
Following their competition in integrated washing and drying machines, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are now launching AI TVs, sparking another pride battle. On-device AI, which operates AI within the device without a network connection, is rapidly spreading to TVs.On March 13, Samsung Elec
Even after surpassing the “psychological resistance level” of 100 million won, bitcoin continues its upward trend in the domestic market.In particular, a phenomenon known as the “kimchi premium” is observed, where the price of bitcoin in the domestic market is forming higher than that in the U.S. ma
South Korean shipyards are continuously winning contracts for very large crude carriers (VLCCs). Recently, Hanwha Ocean and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HKSOE) have pursued high-value contracts for VLCCs as part of their strategy to diversify their vessel portfolios and prioritize s
HD HHI held a ceremony in honor of the start of the construction of a next-generation Aegis Destroyer 2 at its specialty yard in Ulsan, Korea, on March 12.At the ceremony, participants wished for the successful construction of the ship by placing the first block on the dock. The ceremony indicates t
CJ Logistics announced on March 13 that it has received the Center of Excellence for Independent Validators Lithium Batteries (CEIV Lithium Batteries) from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The CEIV Lithium Battery Certification is an international standard certification issued by
LG Chem, Korea’s largest petrochemical company, will shut down its styrene monomer (SM) plant at the end of March. SM is widely used in the manufacture of various petrochemical products. The company is also reportedly considering abandoning production of ethylene oxide (EO) and ethylene glycol (EG),
Hyundai Motor Group will launch a large-scale electric vehicle recall. It is the largest voluntary recall in three years since the automaker entered the market with an electric vehicle-only platform (E-GMP) in 2021. Hyundai and Kia will replace faulty integrated charging control units (ICCUs) in som
LG Electronics will invest US$60 million in AI-based autonomous service robot startup Bear Robotics based in Silicon Valley of the United States.LG Electronics announced on March 12 that it has entered into a share subscription agreement to invest US$60 million in Bear Robotics to acquire a stake in
As the global semiconductor war has become a hot race among nations, major countries such as the United States, China, and Japan have been providing large cash support to their own companies or foreign companies that make investments in their semiconductor industries to boost the growth of their sem
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced on March 12 that it appointed Vice Chairman Cho Hyun-sang of Hyosung as the new chairman of the Korea-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Committee on March 11.The Korea-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Committee was jointly established by the Korea Chamber
Despite a slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) demand, Panasonic, a Japanese battery company, is considering further investment in its De Soto, Kansas, factory in the United States to increase production capacity for the 4680 cylindrical battery, which has five times the energy capacity of existing bat
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have reportedly stopped selling their old semiconductor equipment to China. The move comes in response to the United States urging them to align with its controls on semiconductor exports to China.The Financial Times (FT) cited several industry insiders on March 12 s
Hyundai Motor Group has completed the development of ultra-fast chargers and will begin to distribute them in earnest. The internalization of ultra-fast chargers is expected to speed up the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure.According to sources in the automotive industry on March 11, the