A homegrown autonomous driving vehicle will begin its first trial run next week, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute said Wednesday. AutoVe is a level 4 self-driving vehicle that does not have a driver’s seat. With no human assistance, the six-seater car is driven solely by the research institute’s artificial intelligence system, coupled with a self-developed voice recognition system. Passengers can just talk to the car to set up the destination, it said.

SK Gas aims to build a hydrogen value chain complex in Ulsan by 2025, encompassing raw material sourcing, production, storage and distribution. At the envisioned complex which will sit on a 140,000-square-meter plot of land, the company plans to build facilities for hydrogen extraction as well as liquid hydrogen storage and distribution. SK Gas plans to utilize the company’s existing supply channels of liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas to extract hydrogen from. The com

South Korea’s Daewoong Pharmaceutical signed an agreement to license out its gastroesophageal reflux treatment Fexuprazan to US biotech firm Neurogastrx, the company announced Tuesday. Under the contract worth $430 million in total, Daewoong will receive milestone payments of undisclosed amounts when stages are completed in the drug’s development process in the US, in addition to royalties based on its future sales in the US and Canada. Daewoong has also received a 5 percent equi

US pharmaceutical company Moderna may produce the drug substance for its messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccine in South Korea, a local media outlet reported Monday. The company is reviewing options for the vaccine substance production here, including building its own production facility in Korea and partnering with a local firm, the report said, quoting Corrine Le Goff, Moderna’s chief commercial officer. The executive did not provide further details. The US-based pioneer in mRNA techno

South Korea injected the most in investments for purchasing semiconductor equipment during the first quarter this year, market data showed Friday. According to the latest report from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, the combined investment for semiconductor equipment across the world during the first quarter reached $23.5 billion, up 51 percent on-year. Under the lead of top market players such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, South Korea accounted for around 31 percen

Samsung Electronics is expected to enjoy price increases of solid-state drives in the forthcoming months, due to robust demand from data center providers, market data showed Friday. According to the latest report from Taiwan-based market researcher TrendForce, contract prices of enterprise SSDs for the third quarter this year are expected to jump 10-15 percent on-quarter. The report attributed the price hike to the cloud service providers in the North American region that have recently been

Germany’s leading multi-level marketing and direct sales firm LR Health & Beauty is building its business presence here, in hopes of expanding beyond Korea into the Asia region, its chief executive said. “It is great to see how LR has developed over the last few years. We have reached decisive milestones,” Andreas Friesch, who has led the company since 2018, said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “The expansion to South Korea is one of them,” he added.

South Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are taking the initiative in the messenger RNA vaccine sector in hopes of developing new COVID-19 vaccines and building their capabilities to counter the next pandemic. Samsung Biologics, a major contract manufacturer of drugs, plans to add an mRNA vaccine production line at its facility in Songdo, Incheon, to potentially manufacture ingredients for new mRNA vaccines. ST Pharm, GeneOne Life Science and Hanmi Science are bent on developing

Google has brought a wide range of changes to its service terms starting from Tuesday, which industry sources say would help give a significant boost to its company revenue. Google now allows YouTube to place ads on videos made by all creators -- be they big or small. Previously small content creators who don’t qualify for the company’s partner program couldn’t put ads on their videos. The latest policy change would boost the YouTube Premium membership, which gives ad-free

ONE store, South Korea’s homegrown app market backed by all three mobile carriers, announced Tuesday that it has secured 17 billion won ($15 million) of funding from Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital unit. Of the total, 11.3 billion won will come from Microsoft, while Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners Management GmbH will invest 5.5 billion won to acquire shares in ONE store, which is affiliated with SK Telecom. ONE store will issue 414,900 convertible preferred

The number of medical devices produced by local companies has surpassed those imported from other countries for the first time since 2011, according to a report released by the government, Monday. The number of local companies’ medical devices reported to the government last year reached 4,222, accounting for 51.6 percent in the market, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The total number of reported medical devices here, including imports, reached 8,183, slightly down fr

LG Electronics is on path to take the crown of the world’s No. 1 home appliance maker by sales, as it continues a stellar performance this year, local analysts predicted. According to market reports from securities companies here, the home appliance and air solution unit of LG Electronics is expected to post record high sales of around nearly 7 trillion won ($6.3 billion) in the second quarter, claiming the world’s top spot in terms of quarterly sales for a second consecutive quar

Kumho Tire is looking to bolster its share of the local tire market with its latest all-season model SOLUS TA51, launched in April. SOLUS TA51 is the tire maker’s first new product in three years, and comes in 34 different sizes, ranging from 16 inches to 19 inches. The tire product will be compatible with most car models in the local market, the company explained. It is a Korean market-only model. It is specially designed to be suitable for use in different weather conditions across

Hyundai Engineering & Construction will begin presales of flats for a new high-rise apartment complex in Iksan, North Jeolla Province this month, the company said Sunday. The apartment complex, dubbed Hillstate Iksan, will comprise six buildings with 454 housing units, which measure from 59 to 126 square meters. The complex is at a prime location right next to Seonhwa-ro which cuts through the center of the city, the builder said. On top of that, it is also close to Iksan Station that i

Celltrion Healthcare, which is in charge of Celltrion‘s overseas business, is expected to launch sales of its adalimumab biosimilar Yuflyma in the European market in June, according to industry sources, Sunday. It will initially be launched in around six European countries, including Spain, the officials said. A Celltrion Healthcare’s official said the company would try to release Yuflyma in Spain by next month, but the schedule can be adjusted. Yuflyma is the world’s firs

The Fair Trade Commission of South Korea is expected to survey the local digital advertising market to uncover any unfair practices on the part of major platform operators such as Google and Facebook. According to government officials Tuesday, the antitrust watchdog has commissioned research on potential antitrust issues in the local advertising market. It will include in-depth interviews with advertisers, ad agencies and consumers. The US-based internet giants Google and Facebook are among

South Korea ranks fourth in terms of the number of patents registered in the artificial intelligence sector, but an index showing the impact of the patents shows that the quality of patents from South Korea fell relatively short, according to a report, Tuesday. The report from Clarivate Analytics and KAIST Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy says that the number of patents that South Korea registered in the AI field has reached 6,317 between 2010 and 2019, the fourth highest among the 10

A South Korean government official said Monday that the country aims to secure messenger RNA vaccine technology to strengthen its vaccine production capacity and take a step up as a global vaccine production hub. “Our goal is not to become a contract manufacturing partner in the production of ingredients for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. We aim to develop the mRNA vaccines by next year, with technologies acquired through possible technology transfers and co-development deals,” said

The South Korean government plans to plant 3 billion new trees over the next 30 years, joining the World Economic Forum’s One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious global agenda suggested in 2020 to grow one trillion trees worldwide by 2030. Earlier this year, the Korea Forest Service announced the new planting plan as a part of the country’s larger scheme to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. With estimated cost of around 6 trillion won ($5.3 billion), the project aims to restor

Seo Min-jeong, the eldest daughter of Amorepacific Chairman Seo Kyung-bae, and Hong Jeong-hwan, the eldest son of Bokwang Investment Chairman Hong Seok-joon, have agreed to divorce after eight months of marriage, industry sources said Friday. The news followed Amorepacific’s regulatory filing on Friday, in which the company made a change to Hong’s holdings in the firm. Previously, Suh Kyung-bae, chairman of Amorepacific Group, gifted 100,000 shares in South Korea’s major b