Vital for smartphone screens, electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines alike, rare earths are highly sought after.　These metals and elements have become indispensable for many advanced industries.　About 35 percent of the world’s rare earth reserves are in China, which produced 120,000 metric tons, or 70 percent, of the global supply in 2018. (AFP)

　South Korean exports of information and communications technology products dropped for the ninth straight month in July on sluggish demand for chips, mobile phones and displays, data showed.　Outbound shipments totaled $14.51 billion last month, down a whopping 21.8 percent from a year ago, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT.　Korea’s ICT exports have been on the decline since November last year, with overseas shipments plunging 22.5 percent in June. (Yonhap)

　More than half of Seoul citizens watch TV or use the internet and play online games for leisure during weekdays, a poll showed.　The survey of 1,000 people by the Seoul Metropolitan Government showed that 51.2 percent spend their free time on weekdays watching TV and doing online activities, followed by exercising with 17.5 percent and taking a rest with 6.6 percent.　On the weekend, traveling or doing outdoor activities topped the list, followed by watching TV or playing online games at 17.3 per

　Samsung Electronics ranked second in terms of the number of patents filed in the United States last year, a report by a US patent association showed.　 Samsung registered 5,836 patents in the US last year, trailing behind IBM with 9,088 patents, the Intellectual Property Owners Association said. 　Samsung’s rival LG Electronics was the seventh-largest patent holder with 2,473, moving up one notch from a year ago, the IPO said. (Yonhap)

　South Korea’s coal consumption increased last year, bucking the global trend for reducing carbon emissions, a report showed. 　South Korea consumed 88.2 million tons of oil equivalent, a unit of energy, in 2018, up 2.4 percent from a year ago, according to the London-based energy company BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2019.　The latest figure makes South Korea the world’s fifth-largest coal consumer, following China, India, the United States and Japan, BP said. (Yonhap)

　The number of air passengers on routes between South Korea and Japan dipped during the peak summer vacation season amid an escalating bilateral trade spat, government data showed.　The passenger load factor for flights to and from Japan averaged 71.5 percent during the first week of August, down from 84.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. (Yonhap)

　South Koreans’ credit card spending on Japanese products has halved over the past month amid an escalating trade row between the two countries, government data showed.　Many Korean consumers began boycotting Japanese products and tourism in early July, when Japan restricted exports of key materials to Korea. A Japanese Cabinet decision early this month to exclude Korea from Japan’s list of trusted trading partners has fueled anti-Japan sentiment.　In a report submitted to Rep. Lee Tae

　US tennis superstar Serena Williams topped Forbes magazine’s list of the highest-paid women in sports for the fourth straight year.　The business publication calculated that the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion earned $29.2 million in the 12-month period ending June 1 -- with just $4.2 million of that coming from prize money.　Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who burst to international stardom with a stunning upset of Williams in the 2018 US Open final and went on to win the Australian Open in

　Arsenal announced the signing of winger Nicolas Pepe from French side Lille in early August for a club-record fee reported to be 80 million euros ($87 million).　　The deal for the 24-year-old Ivory Coast international eclipses the 63.8 million euros spent on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January 2018 as the Gunners add another attacking option to their ranks.　　Pepe becomes the most expensive African player ever and the joint-fourth most expensive signing in Premier League history, after Mancheste

The annual number of applicants for the state-run Test of Proficiency in Korean surpassed 300,000 for the first time last year, its administrator said.A total of 329,224 people across 76 countries applied for the Korean language test for non-native speakers and ethnic Koreans in 2018, according to an official in charge of TOPIK at the National Institute of International Education under the Ministry of Education. The figure marked a 13 percent increase from 290,638 in 2017 and was 120 times more

South Korea’s exports of cultural contents increased 8.4 percent in 2018 from the previous year to $9.55 billion, a government report showed.Last year’s growth came after annual average growth of 16 percent between 2014 and 2017, with exports of $5.27 billion in 2014, $5.66 billion in 2015, $6.08 billion in 2016 and $8.81 billion in 2017, according to the report on trends in the content industry released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Ag

　The number of South Korean users subscribing to the US video-streaming platform Netflix has nearly tripled on-year to surpass the 1.8 million mark, latest industry data showed.　Netflix is estimated to have 1.84 million paid active streaming subscribers as of June, compared with 630,000 users during the same period a year earlier, according to the data compiled by industry tracker WiseApp.　The data showed that some 38 percent of Netflix users in the country are in their 20s, followed by 31 perce

　Nearly 34 percent of South Korean adolescents have thought about killing themselves because of academic pressure, a recent survey showed. 　The grim finding came in the National Youth Policy Institute’s survey of 9,060 elementary, middle and high school students conducted from June-August last year. 　According to the results, 33.8 percent of students polled said they had considered taking their own lives over the previous year. 　The biggest reason was pressure they felt over academic achie

　Sales of cigarettes in South Korea edged down 0.6 percent in the first half of 2019 from a year prior, data showed, amid an anti-smoking campaign and higher prices.　South Korean smokers purchased 1.67 billion 20-cigarette packs in the January-June period, compared to 1.68 billion packs in the same period last year, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.　The figures represent a 17.8 percent drop from the first half of 2014. (Yonhap)

　South Korea’s electronics output was the world’s third largest in terms of value last year thanks to brisk sales of memory chips, an industry report showed. 　The total production of the electronics industry in Asia’s fourth-largest economy came to $171.1 billion in 2018, accounting for 8.8 percent of the global market, the Korea Electronics Association said in the report.　China’s electronics output accounted for 37.2 percent of the global market last year, and the United

　Huawei Technologies remained the No. 2 global smartphone vendor in the past quarter despite tough US sanctions imposed on the Chinese technology giant, market trackers said.　The Chinese firm managed to boost its sales even as the overall market declined, remaining on the heels of sector leader Samsung and ahead of US-based Apple.　According to Strategy Analytics, overall global smartphone sales fell 2.6 percent to 341 million units in the April-June period.　Samsung increased its market share to

　The size of the South Korean coffee market will reach 6.8 trillion won ($5.76 billion) by the end of this year, according to a report released by the Hyundai Research Institute.　Koreans, aged over 20, drank a total of 353 cups of coffee per person on average last year, the report said. 　The average per capita coffee consumption in the world was 132 cups in the same year, which is one-third of domestic consumption. (Yonhap)

　Drug smuggling detected by the South Korean authorities dropped sharply in the first half of 2019, customs data showed, although illegal attempts to smuggle drugs continue to rise. 　A total of 86.8 kilograms of drugs were confiscated in the January-June period, down 41 percent from 146.9 kilograms posted a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.　Despite the on-year decline, the agency said the figure is still the second-highest in a decade. (Yonhap)

　Exports of medicine and medical supplies reached a record high in 2018, government data showed.　Outbound shipments of locally manufactured medicines and medical supplies stood at $4.67 billion last year, up 14.8 percent from the previous year, according to the data by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. 　Medicine exports have been increasing at an annual rate of 17.9 percent since 2014, the data showed. (Yonhap)

　North Korea’s fragile economy is estimated to have contracted for a second consecutive year in 2018, South Korea’s central bank said last week, an apparent outcome of what many have called unprecedentedly strong international sanctions against the communist state.　The country’s real gross domestic product  is believed to have shrunk 4.1 percent last year from the year before, according to the Bank of Korea. (Yonhap)