SK On co-CEO Jee Dong-seob said Sunday he will make the company the world’s No. 1 electric vehicle battery player with products that excel in safety, performance and price competitiveness. During an interview, the SK On official laid out three core strategies to take on market leaders such as CATL and LG Energy Solution and become No. 1 by 2030. Jee first pledged to offer the safest, the cheapest and the most high-performing EV batteries to clients. “Thanks to its technology and

General Motors will resume the production of Chevrolet Bolt models and power them with LG Energy Solution batteries, signaling its restoration of trust with the South Korean battery giant. According to GM Wednesday, the production of Bolt electric vehicles will commence on April 4 after a months-long shutdown due to recall. GM in August recalled some 143,000 Bolts after defective LG Energy Solution batteries caused fires. Of the total recall cost of $1.8 billion, LG Electronics and LG Energy S

SK hynix on Wednesday introduced a next-generation memory chip that processes data 16 times faster and consumes 80 percent less electricity. The process-in-memory or PIM chips developed by the South Korean chipmaker can both store and process data, while ordinary memory chips can only store data. As PIM chips can do two tasks at the same time and provide extra computing power, they have emerged as the key components in the artificial intelligence and big data sectors. “Computers mounte

Posco Chemical said Tuesday it ran an experience program where children can make miniature electric vehicles and charging stations and learn about their eco-friendliness. According to the refractory and secondary battery materials arm of South Korean steel giant Posco, it opened “Green Dream Class” at four children’s culture centers from Jan. 24 to Feb. 11 where Posco Chemical staff and executives participated as instructors and assembled miniature EVs and charging stations t

South Korean petrochemical firms are bolstering safety measures to avoid violating a new workplace disaster law, which sends CEOs to prison in case of fatal accidents. According to industry sources Monday, petrochemical firms are on edge after an explosion killed four workers and injured four others at Yeochun NCC’s factory in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province on Friday. Due to the accident, Yeochun NCC is likely to become the first petrochemical firm to be punished by the controversial w

Koo Ja-hong, the chairman of LS Nikko Copper, died Friday at the age of 75. The tycoon served as South Korean conglomerate LS Group’s first chairman for nine years from 2004 to 2012 and then handed over the post to his cousin Koo Ja-yeol. After the sudden death of the cousin in 2014, Koo Ja-hong returned to the management as the chairman of LS Nikko Copper. The mogul is credited with the successful independent management of LS Group after it split off from LG Group in 2004. Also, Koo

Mark Lippert, former US ambassador to South Korea who is currently working as public policy chief at YouTube Asia-Pacific, is joining Samsung Electronics as the head of corprate and government affairs in North America, industry sources said Friday. The former diplomat will begin working for the tech giant starting next month as the executive vice president of Samsung Electronics America and oversee its external relations in the region. Lippert is reportedly in the final stages of signing the

South Korean solar companies may face a bright future this year as the US recently extended a tariff for four more years to keep cheap Chinese products in check. According to industry sources Friday, the US last week decided to impose a 15 percent tax on imported solar cells and panels for another four years as part of an apparent effort to block the inflow of Chinese-made products. The US first introduced the tariff to safeguard its domestic solar industry from China, which manufactures rou

SK Inc., the holdings firm of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group, will give out the largest-ever dividends to shareholders: 8,000 won ($6.6) per share. The total dividend amount is 447.6 billion won, a 114 percent increase from 208.7 billion won in 2016. The figure is 21 percent up from the last year’s 370.1 billion won. “The profit SK Inc. secured from the partial divestment of SK Biopharmaceuticals shares last year was reflected in the finances, leading t

Samsung Electronics invested more money into its chip plants and equipment in 2021 than any of its competitors including Intel and TSMC. According to the South Korean chip giant Wednesday, the company poured 43.6 trillion won ($36.4 billion) for upgrades to and the expansion of its chip plants in Korea and China where advanced DRAM chips and vertical NAND flash memory chips are produced. The funds were also used for the expansion of an advanced 5-nanometer production line at its foundry plan

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Han Jong-hee is in Vietnam to make final preparations for the South Korean tech giant’s annual Galaxy Unpacked event scheduled this Thursday. According to an industry source Tuesday, the executive arrived in Hanoi on Monday to check the production of Galaxy 22 smartphones. This is Han’s first visit to Vietnam since Samsung Electronics merged its smartphone and consumer electronics divisions into the mobile experience (MX) division in Decem

LG Energy Solution was the most renewable company in South Korea in 2020, a report showed Monday. According to a report published by Carbon Disclosure Project, an environmental non-government organization, LG Energy Solution transitioned to renewable energy 33 percent, the highest figure among Korean firms participating in the Renewable Energy 100 initiative. Renewable Energy 100, or RE100, is a global initiative to shift 100 percent to renewable energy by 2050. The campaign is led by The Cl

Lotte Chemical will inject more than 602 billion won ($502.3 million) to produce raw materials for electric vehicle batteries and build new facilities for carbon capture and liquefaction on a 67,000-square-meter site inside a petrochemical complex in Daesan, South Chungcheong Province. The chemical unit of Lotte Group will use the fund to manufacture high-purity ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate. The two are raw materials of electrolytes, one of the four key components of EV batteries.

Samsung Display has launched a new platform where its vendors can test their raw materials for OLED panels free of charge, the company said Sunday. The “Sync-OLED” platform, co-developed with the supercomputing center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, allows suppliers to run simulations on their materials and predict how they will affect the performance of OLED panels. The new platform is expected to shave costs significantly for partners. When partn

Samsung SDI will voluntarily recall 1,163 battery modules inside some 100 Ford and Stellantis vehicles in the US due to welding issues, according to the governmental National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Sunday. While putting battery cells together into modules, components called bus bars were not welded properly, which could lead to a loss of propulsion of electric vehicles. The bus bars were manufactured by South Korean subsupplier Next+. As the recall is due to welding issues

A consortium led by Lotte Ventures, a startup investment unit of South Korea’s No. 5 conglomerate Lotte Group, injected $11 million into Soelect, a North Carolina-based firm that manufactures next-generation materials for electric vehicle batteries. According to the Soelect Thursday, the consortium, comprised of Lotte Ventures, General Motors Ventures and KTB Network, will support the US startup to commercialize its EV battery technology. The startup develops materials that go inside

Samsung SDI has established a new organization to accomplish its environmental, social and governance goals, including a full transition to renewable energy by 2050. According to the South Korean battery firm Thursday, its board of directors formed a sustainable business management committee to bolster ESG efforts. Also, an ESG strategy team, which previously belonged to the firm’s strategy division, has been elevated to a sustainable business management bureau directly under the chief fi

A giant container ship that was knocked off by strong winds and blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal in 2021 was mounted with an 85-megawatt engine. Powered by fossil fuels, the engine is a miniature coal power plant that generates massive energy to maneuver the 200,000-ton ship the length of four football fields. South Korea, the world‘s No. 1 shipbuilder, last year bagged 88 percent of global orders to build such huge container ships powered by internal combustion engines. Like it or not,

South Korea witnessed a trade deficit for two consecutive months for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008, due to rising prices of energy and raw materials. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Asia’s No. 4 economy saw its exports increase 15.2 percent on-year to $55.3 billion in February, while its imports surged 35.5 percent to $60.2 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $4.8 billion. This is the first two-month trade deficit since the four

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix announced Friday that its annual revenue surged 35 percent to 42.9 trillion won ($35.6 billion) on-year, a record figure for the company. Operating profit spiked 148 percent to 12.4 trillion won. The record performance was propelled by the robust demand in IT gadgets amid a non-face-to-face trend despite uncertainties posed by supply chain risks, the company explained. The previous record was 40.4 trillion won of revenue in 2018, when the firm benefited from a