Larger than bestselling Grandeur, cheaper than K9, Kia’s all-new K8 provides new product tier for sedan drivers

South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. will supply battery cells for US electric vehicle startup Rivian's upcoming vehicles, the companies said Tuesday. RJ Scaringe of Rivian, backed by Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co., said in a statement Samsung SDI has been developing the battery cells for its vehicles as it plans to launch an electric pickup and SUV later this year. Samsung SDI has been partnering with Rivian for its EV lineup, a company spokesperson said, without elaborating on th

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip producer, is likely to accelerate its investment in the United States as US President Joe Biden urged more spending in the chipmaking sector to resolve the chip shortage and build up a stable supply chain, analysts here said Tuesday. Samsung was one of the 19 global firms and the only South Korean company that attended the White House's virtual meeting on Monday (local time) where Biden stressed a need to invest in the semiconductor indu

SK IE Technology Co. (SKIET), a battery material subsidiary under SK Innovation Co., said Tuesday its second battery separator factory in China started operations to step up its production capacity. SKIET said it opened its first overseas production line in the southeastern Chinese city of Changzhou in November and began rolling out lithium-ion battery separators at its second factory in the complex. The Changzhou factory's operation increases SKIET's annual production capacity to 510 millio

  Five South Korean biotech companies are pushing for phase three clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in the second half of this year, the health ministry said Monday. The government plans to inject about 68.7 billion won ($61 million) this year for the clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines by SK Bioscience Co., EuBiologics Co., Cellid, Genexine and GeneOne Life Science, the ministry said. The ministry made the announcement in a report to President Moon Jae-in. Also Monday, the Ministry

SKI’s US battery biz salvaged after dramatic patch-up with LGES, but challenges remain

Pan Ocean Co., South Korea's second-largest shipper by sales, said Monday it has signed another deal with global oil giant Shell NA LNG, LLC (Shell) for the lease of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering ship for six years. Under the $55-million deal, the 18,000-cubic meter LNG bunkering ship to be built by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. will be put into operation for Shell by May 2023, the company said. The deal to be effective by May 2029 has an option to extend the lease period by two years.

South Korea's leading steelmaker Posco estimated Monday its first-quarter operating profit hit the highest point in 10 years on robust demand amid global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating profit for the January-March quarter jumped to 1.55 trillion won ($1.4 billion) from 705.3 billion won during the same period of last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. It marked the highest quarterly operating profit since the steelmaker reported 1.7 trillion won in the se

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has obtained a combined 227 billion won ($202 million) worth of orders to build three liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers. Under the deal with an Asian company, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., a unit of KSOE, will deliver two 86,000-cubic meter LPG carriers starting in the first half of 2023, KSOE said. Another deal with an Oceanian company calls for Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., another KSOE unit, to deliver a 40,000-

Shares of two Korean battery makers spiked Monday as they ended a two-year legal dispute over electric vehicle (EV) battery technology, which cleared uncertainty over their businesses. On Sunday, LG Chem-owned LG Energy Solution Ltd. and SK Innovation Co. reached a last-minute settlement in a bitter US trade dispute, just one day before an import ban on SK was to take effect. SK Innovation agreed to pay 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) in compensation, half in cash and half in royalty, to its bi

In embracing global ESG trends, auto group focuses on efficiency, balance and long-term business goals

South Korean wireless carriers are estimated to have logged robust earnings in the first quarter on the back of sharp growth in 5G users and their non-telecom businesses, a poll showed Sunday. The combined operating profits of the country's three major mobile carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- are expected to have reached 966.5 billion won ($863.3 million) in the January-March period, up 6.8 percent from the previous year, according to the poll on six local brokerage hou

SK Innovation Co. agreed to pay 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) to settle an electric vehicle battery dispute with LG Energy Solution Ltd. and withdraw all their other pending litigations to end their two-year legal battle, the two companies said Sunday. The two Korean battery makers announced the results of their agreement, hours before a deadline for an import ban on SK. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) in February sided with LG in a trade secret case and issued a 10-year import ba

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called upon President Joe Biden to overturn the US International Trade Commission’s ruling against SK Innovation, marking the third such request since the decision made on Feb. 11. In his statement issued on Thursday, local time, Kemp urged that the impact on the $2.6 billion electric vehicle battery production plant in Jackson County will deliver a heavy blow to the regional economy, unless the president takes immediate action. “The jobs of at least 2,

Longtime aspiration for Korean-made fighter jet comes true