South Korea’s major corporate groups are tightening their supervision of key businesses as they brace for repercussions from the possible expansion of Japan’s trade curbs, according to industry sources Tuesday.Samsung Electronics’ de facto leader Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the company’s semiconductor packaging plant located in Onyang, South Chungcheong Province, to check out the chipmaking operations. He held a meeting with the top executives of the chipmaking, TV

Kim Sang-jo, chief state policy secretary of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, will discuss the countermeasures against any negative impact of Japan’s trade restrictions with the top brass of the country’s five biggest conglomerates this week, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Monday.  The meeting will most likely take place on Thursday, according to news reports. “The date is flexible,” said Kim, adding that it is yet to be finalized. The five conglomerates include Sa

South Korean manufacturers of cutting-edge electronic components are likely to face increasing costs and burden of securing hi-tech materials and parts from Japan following the decision to remove the country from its whitelist of entrusted trade partners. Korean companies that purchase any of the 1,115 items designated as strategic materials from Japan will now be required to submit extra documents including export approval, the final users’ covenants and reasons for imports.  As many

South Korean manufacturers of cutting-edge electronic components are likely to face increasing costs and burden of securing hi-tech materials and parts from Japan following the decision to remove the country from its whitelist of entrusted trade partners. Korean companies that purchase any of the 1,194 items designated as strategic materials from Japan will now be required to submit extra documents including export approval, the final users’ covenants and reasons for imports. As many as 85

The top-tier tech companies in South Korea, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, have their hearts in the mouth after Japan voted Friday to remove the country from its whitelist of countries that enjoy preferential trade treatment.The semiconductor industry sees the current situation as an “unprecedented emergency” that could directly hit productivity, especially now during a market downturn. “The delisting decision is making matters even worse for the chipmaking industr

Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled its first table PC Galaxy Tab S6 that can be controlled by hand gestures.The sixth edition of Galaxy Tab features remote control functionality enabled by Samsung’s signature S Pen.S Pen has built-in Bluetooth Low Energy remote control technology that allows users to take selfies and videos and control multimedia without actually touching the device. A 10-minute-long wireless charge lasts 10 hours. Other features include converting handwritten notes

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced a 56 percent plunge in operating profit in the second quarter due to the sluggish performance of its two main divisions -- memory chips and smartphones -- amid weakening market conditions. The South Korean tech giant posted consolidated sales of 56.13 trillion won and 6.6 trillion won in operating profit in the April-June period. Its quarterly sales and operating profit decreased 4 percent and 56 percent, respectively, from the same period last year.&nb

While production of high-computing chips at Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chip business, is expected to suffer in the wake of a trade dispute between South Korea and Japan, other global chipmakers are aggressively expanding investments to spur production, according to the industry on Monday. TSMC, the world’s third-biggest chipmaker based in Taiwan, has announced a plan to hire more than 3,000 engineers by the end of this year, along with plans to invest in new extreme

With SK hynix making a painful decision to cut production of memory chips Thursday, all eyes are on whether Samsung Electronics -- the world’s No. 1 DRAM producer with a market share of over 40 percent -- will follow suit. Samsung has denied it plans to cut production, but market analysts say the chip giant will slowly reduce its output of memory chips. This may sound negative to Samsung’s operations, but cutting down production would help shore up sagging prices in the memory segmen

SK hynix, the second-largest chipmaker in the world, announced Friday its lowest quarterly operating profit in three years in the second quarter of this year, and has decided to downsize production amid growing concerns about demand recovery and impact of the trade dispute with Japan.The company said it posted 6.45 trillion won ($5.46 billion) in sales during the April to June period, down 38 percent from a year earlier, while recording 638 billion won in operating profits. Second-quarter operat

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it will release its first foldable smartphone Galaxy Fold in September, three months after postponing the launch due to display defects. To fix the problems, Samsung said the top protective layer of the foldable display has been extended beyond the bezel, making it apparent that it is an integral part of the display structure and not meant to be removed.  The Galaxy Fold also features additional reinforcements to better protect the device from external part

Amid growing concerns about worsening fine dust, the Korea Forest Service is making efforts to provide more green spaces by creating forests in cities as part of measures to tackle the environmental problem. Under plans to reduce fine dust and build green infrastructure for urbanities, set by the KFS last year, the government agency is going to create at least one urban forest in each of the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces across the country starting this year. In addition, the agency is pl

LG Display announced Tuesday it has invested an additional 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in the 10.5-generation line for organic light-emitting diode panels at its P10 factory in a bid to expand the market presence of large-sized OLED screens. The world’s biggest OLED panel maker will execute the investment with an aim to increase the monthly production capacity of the newest line located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to 45,000, starting from 2023. The Gen 10.5 plant was built to manufacture

LG Chem said Tuesday the company is holding the second Global Innovation Contest to discover new technologies and ideas from universities and institutes around the world. The South Korean petrochemicals and energy solutions developer started receiving innovative ideas in the fields of petrochemicals, electronic batteries, advanced materials and biotechnology. Recruitment will run until Sept. 30. Graduates and professional researchers in the aforementioned fields are eligible to apply for the con

LG Electronics said Monday the company will launch the latest models of its artificial intelligence TVs with Arabic language options in the Middle East market this month, starting with Saudi Arabia. The LG TVs will be the world’s first to offer Arabic as a language option for the AI platform voice controls. The Korean company is releasing organic light-emitting diode TVs and liquid crystal display-based NanoCell TVs in the Middle East market, both equipped with LG’s AI platform LG Th

Samsung Electronics is not considering making additional investments in the United States as a plausible measure against the ongoing exports curbs by Japan, according to company officials Monday. Some news reports said the South Korean tech giant is considering expansion of its system-on-chip and foundry facilities in Austin, Texas, to fend off the impact of the Japan-imposed restrictions on exports of key chipmaking materials. Samsung had discussed making additional investments in the Austin pl

Samsung Electronics appears to be turning to domestic electronics parts makers, especially for its upcoming mobile devices, amid Japan’s economic reprisal, according to industry sources Sunday. The South Korean tech giant is deemed to be the biggest victim of Japanese restrictions on exports of three key hi-tech materials -- fluorinated polyimide, photoresist and hydrogen fluoride -- which can smother the production of both semiconductors and smartphones. For the Galaxy Fold smartphones, S

Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced it was starting the mass production of the world’s fastest mobile DRAM chips for 5G-enabled smartphones, amid prolonging tensions between South Korea and Japan over export restrictions.  Samsung has embarked on mass producing 10-nanometer-class 12-gigabit low-power DDR5, featuring the fastest data processing for mobile devices -- 1.3 times faster than previous mobile memory chips. The Korean tech giant is also planning to start mass producing

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday released details of its “catch-all system” for the country’s trade controls for security, refuting one by one Japan’s claims that South Korea’s system is insufficient.The ministry reiterated that Korea has been controlling exports of both strategic and nonstrategic items under stricter conditions than Japan.Japan has raised as a reason for its export restrictions of key materials for South Korea’s tech fi

A research team led by Kim Kyung-rok at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology successfully implemented the world’s first ternary semiconductor design on a large wafer, which will help development of low-power and high-computing microchips in the future, according to Samsung Electronics on Wednesday.  The ternary semiconductor architecture is expected to contribute to developing high-computing chips that are essential for artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, the in