Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world’s two largest makers of computer memory chips, dominated the global market for dynamic random access memory chips in the second quarter despite a looming global economic slowdown, a report showed Thursday. According to the report by Taiwan-based DRAMeXchange Technology Inc., Samsung accounted for 41.4 percent of the global DRAM mark...

Two leading mobile carriers ― SK Telecom and KT Corp. ― are engaged in a price war as both introduced new monthly telecom service payment plans on Thursday, which they claim offer cheaper than existing smartphone service rates. The monthly smartphone payment plans enable customers to choose the number of voice minutes and text messages, as well as their desired data usage amount, and pay accordi...

Illegal capital outflow has almost tripled here over the past five years, a lawmaker revealed Thursday citing the data from Korea Customs Service. A total of 22 cases of assets moving abroad illegally were confirmed last year, up from six in 2006, according to Rep. Kwon Kyoung-seok of the ruling Grand National Party. The amount also more than tripled from 49.8 billion won to 152.8 billion won (...

Japan’s machinery orders rose for a second month in June as companies increased spending to restore businesses and production disrupted by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Factory orders, an indicator of capital spending in three to six months, rose 7.7 percent in June from May, the Cabinet Office said Thursday in Tokyo. The median forecast of 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for...

France’s top credit grade was affirmed by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings as relative yields on the nation’s debt climb on concern that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is intensifying. The outlook on France is stable and its “AAA” ranking is “warranted,” Moritz Kraemer, S&P’s managing director of European sovereign ratings, said Wednesday in a Bloomberg television i...