South Korea recorded a trade deficit of US$9.97 billion last year, marking the second consecutive year of deficit since 2022. However, the trade deficit in the past year contracted compared to 2022 when it was US$47.78 billion, primarily due to the recovery in exports in the latter half of the year.
In December of last year, domestic semiconductor exports recorded the highest annual growth rate yet. The prices of memory semiconductors, the main export products of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, have consistently been on the rise.According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy on Jan.
A public tender for a 4.7 trillion won stake in NXC, the holding company of Nexon, has ended empty-handed again.The second tender for 851,968 shares (29.3 percent stake) of NXC failed to find buyers, according to the Online Tender Offer System of Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) on Dec. 29
Recent data indicates that the number of mid-sized companies playing a crucial role as the “backbone” of the domestic economy increased by nearly 100 last year. Both the total revenue and operating profit of mid-sized companies saw an increase of around 10% compared to the previous year, and investm
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) announced on Dec. 26 that it will launch the KASS, which provides precise positioning signals by correcting positioning errors on Dec. 28. The service can decrease the scope of errors (15 to 33 meters) that occur when using GPS signals to 1
The Korean government has temporarily postponed the dispatch of an additional reconstruction cooperation team to Ukraine. This is due to a combination of changes in the international situation due to the prolonged Ukraine-Russia war and a reshuffle of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration of Korea.Accord
Dong-A Socio Group’s specialty drug affiliate, Dong-A ST, will enter the ADC market through the acquisition of an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linker platform company. ADCs are a treatment that combines an antibody that combines a target antigen with a cytotoxic drug as a linker and is known for it
The South Korean government is considering applying antitrust regulations following abrupt price hikes by major content platforms such as YouTube and Netflix.A senior ruling party official stated in a media interview on Dec. 21, “A 40% hike in consumer prices at once is a kind of monopolistic abuse.
Samsung Electronics is set to establish an advanced semiconductor packaging research and development (R&D) base in Yokohama, Japan. The company plans to invest 40 billion yen into this area by 2028.The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, along with the city of Yokohama, announced on De
The government will build 10,000 “smart plus” buildings specializing in robots, drones, autonomous vehicles and urban air mobility (UAM) by 2035.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) announced a road map for the promotion of smart plus buildings as an innovation policy in the s
Samsung Electronics and Naver have unveiled their jointly developed artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor, which has been in development over the past year. Known for its power efficiency being approximately eight times greater than chips from competitors like Nvidia, this product is expected t
Vietnam-based airlines are emerging as dark horses, overtaking U.S. and Chinese carriers as they increase flights between major cities in Vietnam and South Korea while launching an air ticket price war.Vietnam’s largest private carrier Vietjet Air and national carrier Vietnam Airlines ranked first a
Hanwha Aerospace has delivered an additional six K9 self-propelled howitzers to Estonia, adding to the 24 already in operation there. By 2026, when the remaining six units are delivered, Estonia will have a total of 36 K9 howitzers in operation.According to the defense industry on Dec. 18, the Eston
The World Radiocommunication Conference-23 (WRC-23), an international negotiation event for the international distribution of frequencies, successfully identified candidate frequencies for the development of 6th generation (6G) mobile communication. In particular, three of the four candidate bands p
Last year, the debt of the central and local governments, non-profit public institutions, and non-financial public enterprises in the public sector reached nearly 1,600 trillion won (US$1.24 trillion), marking a historic high. The debt of non-financial public enterprises such as Korea Electric Power
The government has set a goal to expand the K-Robot market to a scale of 20 trillion won by 2030 as the future growth engine. A combined investment of over 3 trillion won from both public and private sectors is planned with the objective of deploying one million robots across various industries, inc
A luncheon meeting of labor, management and government representatives was held at a Korean restaurant in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on Dec. 14, according to the Ministry of Labor and Employment and Economic, Social and Labor Affairs Committee, a presidential social dialogue body. This marked the first tim
Information and communication technology (ICT) and automobiles are leading Korean exports. ICT exports emerged from a 17-month recessionary tunnel on the coattail of memory semiconductors. Automobiles are close to surpassing US$70 billion in annual exports for the first time ever.According to the Mi
The Korean government will provide 38 trillion won (US$29 billion) in financial support, including expanding loan limits and debt guarantees for the Korean secondary battery industry over five years. A separate bill will also be prepared to support the growth of a used battery industry ecosystem.The
The government will scale up the global share of Korean electric vehicle (EV) chargers to 10 percent from the current one percent by 2030. It will also provide support to foster competitive charger manufacturers.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of Korea announced its policy directi