Science and technology firm Merck announced Wednesday the launch of Performance Materials, a newly integrated body comprising of recently acquired US-based chemicals and materials firms and its existing semiconductor solutions unit. Merck had acquired Intermolecular, a California-based company for advanced materials innovation in September last year. The following month, Merck completed the acquisition of Versum Materials, an Arizona-based company and a major materials supplier to the semicondu

South Korea’s Drug Ministry said Wednesday it was negotiating with US-based Gilead Sciences for emergency imports of remdesivir, a drug candidate that has shown clinical efficacy in treating COVID-19. Remdesivir is Gilead Science’s proposed drug candidate for Ebola, which has been circuited to test its effect on the latest coronavirus pandemic. In a pan-global clinical trial encompassing 73 institutes across 10 nations targeting over 1,000 COVID-19 patients, patients who were give

Korea’s first insulin pen biosimilar project becomes beneficiary of state subsidy of 3 billion won

LG Chem said Wednesday it will power Vietnam’s first-ever electric vehicle, which can travel up to 500 kilometers on a single charge. According to LG Chem and local media, Vietnam’s first domestic carmaker VinFast will load its first EV models with lithium-ion batteries manufactured by LG Chem. “We expect to officially debut the model at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2020; launch a test program in January 2021 and mass produce the cars by July 2021,” a VinFas

The Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Wednesday its female leadership group Women in Korea has kicked-off the third edition of its mentorship program. The KGCCI WIR group started in 2017 as a cross-industry, cross-national network of female executives to help Korean females in middle management to unlock their leadership potential and accelerate value-driven leadership with a focus on gender, generations and geography. The WIR mentorship program was created in 2018, aiming

The ranking of South Korea’s richest people by their stock value changed drastically upon the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey released by CEOScore showed. The corporate information company analyzed individual investors holding shares in 2,353 listed firms. The combined stock value of the 100 richest investors reached 92.8479 trillion won ($76 billion). Stock values held by those leading companies in bio fields and non-face-to-face contact businesses increased significantly. While the valu

South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industry & Construction said Tuesday that has provided 200 billion won ($164 million) in emergency funds to its Indian affiliate that has suffered from a liquidity shortage brought on the novel coronavirus pandemic. The company said in an official regulatory filing that the money has been sent to Doosan Power System India Private Ltd. that is currently engaged in six thermal power plant construction projects on the subcontinent worth some 4 trillion won. "T

Hyundai Steel, South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Tuesday that its has halted production of its electric arc furnace plant on South Korea's western coast due to weak demand. The company, part of Hyundai Motor Group, said some operations were halted at the Danjin Integrated Steelworks, 123 kilometers south of Seoul, starting this week. It said orders have dwindled to near zero for June. In the past, the steel mill tried to cope with weak sales by scaling back production. "The COVID-19

Binex, a contract development and manufacturing organization for biologics drugs, said Tuesday that it has joined a consortium of companies pursuing mucosal vaccine for COVID-19. A mucosal vaccine is designed to boost the immune response of human mucous, blocking out a respiratory pathogen’s entry to human body. Binex is participating in the project as the manufacturing powerhouse for preclinical drug samples. It has biologics manufacturing facilities in Songdo and Osong, which are capa

Despite daunting competition against market giant China and tech-savvy Japan, South Korean battery makers -- LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation -- have been making headway in the global electric vehicle battery industry. In the first quarter this year, buoyed by several consequences including the COVID-19 pandemic, LG Chem even seized the top spot with a 27.1 percent share of the global market. But they may face a harsh shift in dynamics if they fall behind in developing next-generation

Three Korean shipbuilders have won a large-scale project worth $20 billion for liquefied natural gas vessels in Qatar, according to industry sources Tuesday. Qatar’s state-owned firm Qatar Petroleum said it has signed a deal with three South Korean shipbuilders -- Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries -- to reserve LNG ship construction capacity. Under the agreements, the Korean shipbuilders will reserve a major portion of

The South Korean government on Tuesday announced that it would resume a complaint filed with the World Trade Organization over Japan’s trade curbs placed on exports to South Korea last year, deeming the bilateral dialouge to resolve the issue is not seeing progress. “The Japanese government is not showing willingness to resolve the current issue and the discussion has not seen progress. The government deemed that it was difficult to say normal dialogue was taking place, which was

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has fined local delivery platform Yogiyo 468 million won (about $380,000) for abusing its superior position at the expense of small restaurants, officials said Tuesday. Yogiyo set up by German-based Delivery Hero in 2011 is a mobile and online food delivery platform that allows users to order food from restaurants. It has the second largest market share (26 percent) here following Baemin -- which was also bought by Delivery Hero last year, in a deal that

While more than half of South Korean firms suffered operation hiccups due to disruptions in their supply chains due to the COVID-19 spread, only 3 percent said they would consider reshoring as an alternative, a survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries showed. The survey also showed that even in the case of radical changes in the global supply chains, one-third of the companies had no countermeasures planned. Among the respondents, 56.7 percent said they suffered from the pandem

Creditors of cash-strapped Doosan Group decided Monday to provide an additional 1.2-trillion-won ($1 billion) to the conglomerate. Main creditors, such as Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank), said they agreed to give financial support at a meeting held on the day. The creditors have provided a total of 2.4 trillion won to the embattled group since March. "We have decided to additionally provide 1.2 trillion won (to Doosan Group), accepting its self-r