Coupang announced on March 11 that it will launch the Rocket Cross-Border Shopping Service in the cross-border shopping of goods from Japan, after the United States, China, and Hong Kong.Rocket Direct is a cross-border shopping service provided by Coupang. Coupang has been expanding its service for
South Korea’s current account remained in surplus for the ninth consecutive month thanks to strong semiconductor and automobile exports.According to provisional statistics on the balance of payments released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on March 8, the nation’s current account surplus stood at US$3.05
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) intends to initiate an investigation into Temu and Shein, following its inquiry into AliExpress, the leading online shopping platform in China, regarding potential consumer harm.This comes as the indiscriminate onslaught of Chinese online shopping malls, levera
The author is an analyist for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at junsup@nhqv.com -- Ed.HGI’s 2023 dividend announcement fell somewhat short of market expectations. However, if sufficient profits available for dividend are secured through system improvements, an expansion of shareholder
Korean shipbuilders overtook China in terms of ship order intake in February to take the number one spot in the global market.According to Clarkson Research, a British shipbuilding and shipping market analysis firm, global ship orders totaled 3.4 million CGT (100 ships) in February, of which Korea w
Lotte Chemical is reportedly considering the sale of its Malaysian subsidiary Lotte Chemical Titan (LC Titan).According to industry sources on Mar. 6, Lotte Chemical is searching for potential buyers for LC Titan, including Korean and foreign petrochemical companies and large private equity funds (P
HLB disclosed on March 4 that its board of directors has approved the issuance of 60 billion won in convertible bonds to domestic private equity funds and others. The primary purpose of this fundraising is to secure operational funds. Although the company currently holds over 65 billion won in cash
The former chief technology officer (CTO) of Kakao Bank, who sparked controversy by exercising stock options worth some 7 billion won (US$5.25 million) immediately after Kakao Bank’s listing, has been nominated as the new CTO of Kakao.According to the IT industry on March 4, it has been reported tha
Hanwha Foodtech, which is led by Hanwha Hotel & Resort Vice President Kim Dong-seon, the third son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, has acquired U.S.-based robot pizza brand “Stellar Pizza.”In January, Hanwha Foodtech signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Serve Automation, the pare
The Korean government has set a higher plant order intake target for this year than 2023 and will provide intensive support to help Korean plant builders attain the goal. This is because the global plant market is expected to grow and Korean companies’ order-taking competitiveness has been strengthe
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com -- Ed.Excluding losses at YG Investment, YG Ent’s 4Q23 results met our expectations. BabyMonster’s first debut album, which is to feature the return of main member Ahyeon, is to be released on Apr 1. We e
The battery industry is set to unveil a bunch of new technologies at Interbattery 2024, Korea’s largest secondary battery industry show.LG Energy Solution will take the wraps off its cell to pack (CTP) product at InterBattery 2024 which will run from Feb. 6 to 8 at COEX in Seoul.Cell-to-pack technol
Following last year’s memory semiconductor downturn, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are aggressively increasing their focus on DRAM through the expansion of advanced processing. This move is anticipated due to the expected rise in orders for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5
Four low-cost carriers (LCCs) -- Jeju Air, Air Premia, Eastar Jet, and Air Incheon -- participated in a preliminary tender for the sale of Asiana Airlines’ cargo business division.The four LCCs submitted letters of intent (LOIs) after UBS, the sale organizer, finished accepting LOIs for the prelimin
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at bk@nhqv.com -- Ed.Global stock markets have rallied of late, with the S&P500 surging for four months in a row. In February, the Kospi has outperformed other major markets. But, the fast market growth is likely to bolster p
The trend of improved terms of trade in South Korea has continued for the eighth consecutive month. This is attributed to the slowdown in the decline of export prices, which has resulted in import prices decreasing more significantly than export prices.Exports of semiconductors, the largest export i
Kolon Industries will establish a joint venture with private equity firm Hahn & Company for industrial film manufacturing.On Feb. 27, Kolon Industries announced that it was considering establishing a joint venture (JV) with Hahn & Company for its film business and signed a binding memorandum of unde
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at junsup@nhqv.com -- Ed.From now forward, we believe that the key to determining the value of financial sector plays is to be the existence of specific shareholder return policies and the market's level of trust in them.Boos
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at youngryu@nhqv.com -- Ed.Micron begins mass production of HBM3EMicron has kicked off full-scale production of HBM3E (24GB 8-high) to be used for Nvidia’s H200, which is scheduled to be shipped from 2Q24. The company has als
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) recently signed a contract on the construction of four 174,000-cubic-meter liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with an Oceania-based shipping company.The LNG carriers are valued at US$270 million per vessel, which is US$5 million more than the pre