Posco, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker by output, is expected to have logged double-digit operating profit growth in the fourth quarter on increased demand despite the coronavirus pandemic. Strong demand for steel products in China and a hike in steel prices likely buoyed the company's bottom line in the October-December period, analysts said. Posco is estimated to have posted an operating profit of 838.3 billion won ($760.1 million) in the fourth quarter, up 50.3 percent from a year earl

A lack of hospital beds has been one of the painstaking points of COVID-19 pandemic as more and more medical institutions around the globe become overwhelmed with patients amid the relentless spread of the coronavirus. GreenPureTech., a Seoul-based medical equipment provider, hopes to provide quick relief to this bed crunch and contribute to saving more lives. According to CEO Lim Hyung-bo, the company is an unrivalled leader in the field of movable negative pressure rooms in South Korea, wi

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., a major South Korean builder, said Friday it shifted to a net loss in the fourth quarter from a year earlier due to currency-related losses. For the three months that ended in December, Hyundai E&C swung to a net loss of 122 billion won ($110.6 million) from a net profit of 6.9 billion won in the same period of last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company said the US dollar's strength against the won mainly contributed to the l

Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea's biggest carrier, said Friday it will raise a higher than previously planned amount by selling stocks for its planned acquisition of smaller rival Asiana Airlines Inc. Korean Air plans to sell 3.3 trillion won ($3 billion) worth of new stocks, which is higher than the originally planned 2.5 trillion won to finance the acquisition of debt-laden Asiana, due to its soaring stock price, the company said in a regulatory filing. The national flag carrier plans to i

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Friday it will seek to take punitive actions against unfair business activity by online platform operators in a bid to protect contractors and consumers. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) plans to submit a bill designed to prevent unfair business activity by online platform operators to the National Assembly next week, the regulator said in its 2021 policy plan. Under the bill, online platform operators will be levied with a hefty fine if they conduc

South Korea said Friday it plans to deploy at least five vessels by the end of February to support exporters facing troubles from a hike in freight costs amid soaring demand. Under the plan, HMM Co., the country's leading shipper, will operate a ship with a capacity of 4,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) on the American route in January, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. TEU is a measure used for the capacity of container transportation. SM Line Corp., another loca

ULikeKorea on Thursday announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Corporation Korea to develop a health care tracker chip for pets in Japan. While existing microchip implants for dogs and cats reveal their identification serial numbers and can be used to trace lost animals back to their families, the proposed new product could enable real-time monitoring of an animal’s body temperature and activity levels through a mobile application. With this information, p

Hanwha Solutions to inject $1b to transform into a leading solar-to-hydrogen company

Nation’s superrich group comprises both chaebol members and new business figures

From a wartime gunpowder supplier to a retail-to-finance conglomerate, Hanwha Group has made quite a transformation in its near seven-decade history. Yet, its change from now on may be even more dramatic, as the group with 86 affiliates and total assets of 71 trillion won redefines its core to future-leading technologies such as solar power and hydrogen. At the very center of this ongoing shift in Hanwha’s identity stands Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seun

Hanwha zeroes in on booming satellite internet market

LG Energy Solution topped the global market of electric vehicle batteries in 2020, while Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia have ranked fifth in the global electric vehicle market. According to market tracker EV-Volumes, the country’s battery giant LG Energy Solution deployed the most electric vehicle batteries in the world – a total of 34.5 gigawatts, or enough to power 700,000 electric vehicles. LG was followed by China’s CATL and Japan’s Panasonic, which sold

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong finally broke his silence, three days after he was sent back to prison on Monday for bribing former President Park Geun-hye. In a message sent via his attorneys on Thursday, the Samsung Electronics vice chairman reaffirmed the importance of his ongoing drive to establish a law-abiding culture at the conglomerate. “While reaffirming my continued support for Samsung’s legal compliance monitoring committee, I implore its chairman and its members to carry

Hydrogen-powered vehicles wait in line for a free refueling at a rest area along a highway in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, Thursday. The hydrogen station, which is on a trial run, is offering free refueling Thursday and Friday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. for up to 2 kilograms of hydrogen.  (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

A local office of global pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. is expected to submit an application for the approval of its COVID-19 vaccine to South Korea's drug safety agency, industry sources said Thursday. The company is planning to submit the application to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety before the end of this month, they said. Approval would mark the country's first batch of vaccines as part of a procurement program. Earlier, the government signed a COVID-19 vaccine procurement contra