Samsung Electronics is set to beat US Apple in terms of operating profits for the second quarter, market watchers said Thursday, although the archrival is still expected to stand as the No. 1 player on the earnings chart for all of 2017.The outlook came as Samsung is presumed to have posted record-high earnings for the April-June period at 14 trillion won ($12 billion), compared with 8.14 trillion won a year earlier, the company said last week in its regulatory filing.(Yonhap)Samsung's second-qu

Shinsegae Food, the food unit of the country's retail giant Shinsegae, has been tapped to provide catering services for next year's Winter Olympics in South Korea, the company said Thursday.The company said it will be in charge of providing meals for about 10,000 people, including athletes, administrators and operations personnel and the media for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. (Shinsegae Food)Shinsegae Food said it is developing various dishes, including vegetarian and halal food, to mee

Despite recent government-led efforts to crack down on the dog meat industry, some traditional Korean markets continue to illegally slaughter dogs and sell their meat, according to animal rights group Care.The group filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District’s Prosecution Office on Wednesday, calling for the immediate investigation into and closure of illegally-run dog slaughterhouses.The Moran Dog Meat Market in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)The group accused the markets, includin

South Korea is expected to become the world's top investor in semiconductor equipment this year and again in 2018 with global fab spending reaching record high levels, a report said Wednesday.According to the report from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, $49.4 billion will be spent on fab equipment around the world this year, an increase of 19.8 percent from last year. It exceeds the previous record of $47.7 billion set in 2000. The record will be broken again next year with a

Hanwha Total Petrochemicals, a 50-50 joint venture of Hanwha Group and Total SA, on Wednesday said it has increased its annual output of paraxylene by 200,000 tons at its facility in South Korea after a two-month upgrade.The second plant in Daesan, some 120 kilometers south of Seoul, will have an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons of paraxylene.This undated photo, provided by Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co., shows its production facility in Daesan, South Korea. (Yonhap)Paraxylene, derived from c

South Korea will soon be able to emerge as a major provider of auto parts in Iran, Russia, India and Mexico where local players are having a difficult time meeting growth in the automobile market, industry sources said Tuesday.The emerging economies have yet to establish an efficient system for supply and are undergoing rapid growth in consumer demand, Park Jun-young of Sambo Motors said at a forum at the Convention and Exhibition Center in southeastern Seoul organized by the Korea Trade-Investm

South Korea's locally developed unmanned tiltrotor aircraft successfully took off and landed on a vessel, the state-run aerospace institute said Tuesday.The Korea Aerospace Research Institute said the 200-kilogram TR-60 unmanned aerial vehicle successfully completed the maneuver from the flight deck of a Coast Guard cutter sailing at 10 knots last Friday.  (Photo courtesy of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute) (Yonhap)The TR-60 can be used for surveillance, as well as search and rescue opera

The number of visitors at the country's tallest skyscraper built by retail giant Lotte Group has recently topped the 10 million mark, its operator said Tuesday, marking the 100th day of the building's opening.The 123-story Lotte World Tower, which opened in early April, had a daily average 120,000 visitors, according to Lotte. This undated photo provided by Lotte Corp. on July 11, 2017, shows the 123-story Lotte World Tower in Seoul. (Yonhap)The sales at the larger shopping complex encompassing

South Korea's state audit agency on Tuesday requested that the prosecution probe the customs service over a suspected illicit selection of duty-free operators in 2015. The Board of Audit and Inspection raised suspicions that the Korea Customs Service arbitrarily applied rules to eliminate Hotel Lotte from receiving a license to run a duty-free store in Seoul in its July and November biddings.  It also accused the KCS of later creating additional slots in breach of regulations to help the du

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday hosted a forum on its foundry business, inviting local partners and sharing its vision on the segment.During the Samsung Foundry Forum Korea 2017, the company expanded ties with business partners amid rising demand for chips in line with the development of the Internet of Things, automotive and artificial intelligence industries. (Yonhap)Samsung said its production based on the 10-nanometer technology is stable, and it is currently preparing to take steps toward 7-

The South Korean economy is experiencing a feeble recovery as brisk exports and investment were offset by flaccid private consumption and weak service sector growth, a government report said Tuesday."On the back of an upturn in global trade, upbeat exports and investment pushed up the South Korean economy to a large extent, while domestic demand remained weak due to sluggish private consumption and service sector output," the finance ministry said in its monthly economy assessment repo

Heavy monsoon rains caused the soil beneath a construction building in Suwon, Cheongju Province to collapse Tuesday morning.The collapse caused the retaining wall around the building to fall, burying two construction workers in their late 60s beneath it. (Yonhap)One construction worker was saved by a rescue team almost immediately, but the other was buried for almost two hours before he was pulled out of the rubble. The worker had also seriously injured his leg in the collapse and was promptly s

Local egg prices still are high despite the arrival of eggs imported from Thailand following the latest outbreak of bird flu, data showed Tuesday.The Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade said a carton of 30 eggs was priced at an average 7,969 won ($6.94) as of Monday, up slightly from last month. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 970,000 eggs imported from the Southeast Asian country arrived in South Korea via ship last week. The government has been dealing with

LG Electronics on Tuesday showcased the LG Q6 smartphone, which boasts key high-end features adopted by flagship devices and yet comes with a reasonable price tag.The South Korean tech giant introduced the Q6 and Q6 Plus, which have internal storage capacities of 32 gigabytes and 64 GB, respectively.  (Yonhap)Both devices come with a 5.5-inch "Full Vision" display, which was also adopted by the 5.7-inch flagship G6 smartphone. The company said the Q6 will come with a wide-angle camera at the fro

Doosan Infracore, South Korea's top construction equipment maker, is witnessing robust sales in China's excavator market as the world's No. 2 economy increased spending on infrastructure, industry sources said Tuesday.According to the data provided by KB Securities, a total of 62,617 excavators were sold in China in the first five months of the year, more than doubling from a year earlier. (Yonhap)In the case of Doosan Infracore, the company saw its excavator sales reach 5,329 units during the c

South Korean stocks opened higher on the back of gains from steel and chemical shares Tuesday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 2.29 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,384.39 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Top steelmaker POSCO advanced 2.17 percent, and Korea Zinc climbed 0.22 percent. Hyundai Steel added 1.79 percent.AmorePacific increased 2.31 percent, and LG Household & Health Care rose 0.98 percent. LG Chem moved up 0.34 percent.The local currency was trading at 1,148.

The number of high school students sexually harassed by a teacher has doubled to more than 40, police said Monday. The suspect, a former physical education teacher in Jeonbuk Province, was accused of sexually harassing female high school students during physical education classes, as well as in his office, where he had students visit him individually.  (Yonhap)Two dozen students stepped forward to say that they had been harassed, but the number of known victims increased after a police inquiry w

South Korean stocks closed nearly flat Monday as investors took a wait-and-see stance on second-quarter earnings of listed firms, although Samsung Electronics closed higher on its robust performance estimate, analysts said. The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 2.23 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 2,382.10. Trade volume was low at 277.3 million shares worth 4.87 trillion won ($4.23 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 583

Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors said Monday that drivers of their cars will be able to use a voice recognition service to find gourmet restaurants.  The owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles with a built-in navigation system can download the updated content starting Monday, Hyundai Motor Group said in a statement. In a business tie-up with Siksin, a local gourmet restaurant information provider, the carmakers have added the information of 4,400 restaurants across the country into th

 South Korea's market for a type of unsecured debt security, or exchange traded note, posted rapid growth, thanks to robust demand for risk-hedging investments, the nation's bourse operator said Monday.The market's total value has grown to 3.9 trillion won ($3.3 billion) as of the end of June this year from 466.1 billion won in November 2014.In terms of market value, South Korea's ETN market came second after the United States, which had a value of 16.5 trillion won in its ETN market, the K