Aju Press - Asia News Hub

Journalist

Kim Dong-young김동영

ReporterSamsung Biologics, CJ CheilJedang, LG Chem, Celltrion, Naver, Krafton, Nexon, Hyundai Mobis etc. & energy, game, food, bio, petrochemical, AI

Kim Dong-young is a bilingual journalist at AJU Press (AJP), covering Korean tech, energy, and bio/pharma.
He reports from the field at events like CES and APEC, runs AJP's YouTube channels,
and is pursuing a master's at Sogang's MOT program. "I try everything in this AI era that can improve yet preserve the facts. Journalism still serves as my core."

Latest by Kim Dong-young

Kolon TissueGene extends slide as trial miss guts valuation SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - Shares in Kolon TissueGene fell for a sixth consecutive session on Friday, extending a rout that has erased about three-quarters of the biotech firm's market value in a single week after its osteoarthritis gene therapy failed to outperform a placebo in a late-stage U.S. trial. The stock traded at 15,620 won as of 10:04 a.m. on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ, down 5,430 won, or 25.94 percent from the previous close. The shares had already hit the daily limit-down of about 30 percent for three straight sessions from Monday through Wednesday. The company disclosed on Monday that TG-C, a cell and gene therapy for knee osteoarthritis, missed both co-primary endpoints in its U.S. Phase 3 trial. Pain relief and joint function improved among patients who received the drug, but not by a statistically significant margin over placebo. Analysts pinned the miss on the placebo arm rather than the drug itself. "This failure stems not from a lack of efficacy in TG-C but from an unexpectedly strong placebo effect," said Wi Hae-joo, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, cutting the brokerage's rating to neutral from buy. The firm also lowered its assumptions for trial success probability and U.S. market share. A second U.S. Phase 3 study, coded 12301, is due to report in October, and the company is weighing whether an elevated placebo response skewed the first readout. Wi said the pain reduction seen in the treated arm mirrored earlier Phase 2 results, leaving room for success in the second trial if the placebo effect proves less pronounced. 2026-07-24 10:12:22
S. Korea cracks down on 26 firms over false diet food ads SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it had referred 26 companies for administrative penalties and filed criminal complaints against them for marketing diet products with false or exaggerated claims, in a scheme that moved about 600,000 units worth 11.5 billion won. The companies promoted 30 products, only eight of which were licensed as health functional foods, the ministry said at a briefing on Thursday. The remaining 22 were ordinary foods. Penalties may include business suspensions or corrective orders under the country's food labelling and advertising law. The products rode a wave of online weight-loss fads, among them the so-called "Olé-shot," a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice, and a so-called "natural Wegovy" combining olive oil with boiled eggs. Some were pitched as an "edible Wegovy" or invoked GLP-1, the class of blockbuster obesity drugs. Kim Ji-yeon, a professor of food science and biotechnology at Seoul National University of Science & Technology, dismissed the claims at the briefing. "There are no research findings that olive oil has anti-ageing effects," she said, adding that olive oil benefits the body only when it displaces saturated fat within a normal diet, not when taken as a supplement. She said there was no evidence lemon juice aids the liver in detoxification. Several firms produced short-form videos in which celebrities and pharmacists appeared to endorse the products, using AI-generated imagery and depictions of body tissue to suggest drug-grade effects such as appetite suppression and blocked fat absorption. The videos circulated repeatedly on Facebook and YouTube and funneled viewers to the sellers' own online storefronts. Phrases such as "rapid short-term weight loss" and "fat expulsion" appeared in the clips but were scrubbed from the linked sales pages, a tactic the ministry said exploited the difficulty of tracing advertisers behind clips that vanish after posting. Markups ran from 1.8 to 27.5 times the purchase price. In one case, a product bought for 2,000 won was sold for 60,000 won, generating 2.09 billion won in revenue. 2026-07-23 16:03:20
Korea's battery trio turns corner on ESS boom SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - South Korea's three largest battery makers are seen to have bottomed out in the second quarter as AI boom-led energy storage demand and renewed appetite for EVs from Gulf conflict-induced oil price turbulence pulled them out of a near two-year slump. The reversal of fortune has most benefited Samsung SDI, the underdog among the trio, with analysts expecting it to return to an operating profit for the first time in seven quarters. That would end a losing streak dating back to the third quarter of 2024. The biggest catalyst has not been electric vehicles but energy storage systems (ESS), once considered the industry's backup engine, as AI-driven data center construction fuels surging demand for large-scale battery storage. Samsung SDI's ESS production lines have been running at full capacity. In March, its U.S. subsidiary secured a 1.5 trillion won ($1 billion) contract to supply prismatic ESS batteries to a U.S. energy company through 2029, following an earlier award worth more than 2 trillion won for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. The company bills itself as North America's only non-Chinese producer of prismatic ESS batteries, a niche that has become increasingly valuable as customers seek to diversify supply chains. Government policy has further brightened the outlook. Advanced manufacturing production credits tied to Samsung SDI's U.S. output are projected to reach about 97.7 billion won this quarter, up 21 percent from the previous three months. "As promised earlier this year, we expect an earnings turnaround to be achievable this year," Samsung SDI Chief Executive Choi Joo-sun said at an event marking the company's 56th anniversary, citing new ESS projects and contracts with premium automakers. Among them was Samsung SDI's first-ever battery supply agreement with Mercedes-Benz, signed in Seoul in April, to provide high-nickel batteries for the German automaker's next-generation electric vehicles. The deal means Samsung SDI now counts all three of Germany's premium automotive brands among its customers. An unlikely boost to EV demand came from the Middle East. Oil prices surged as conflict around the Strait of Hormuz threatened energy supplies, prompting more consumers to consider electric vehicles. Domestic EV registrations jumped about 140 percent from a year earlier in April as drivers sought relief from rising fuel costs. The rebound has, at least temporarily, softened the industry's prolonged EV demand slowdown that followed reductions in government subsidies. Chinese manufacturers, however, continue to dominate the global EV battery market. LG Energy Solution, the country's largest battery maker, presented a more mixed picture. It returned to net profit with operating income of 113.3 billion won, but the result relied heavily on 241 billion won in U.S. advanced manufacturing tax credits. Excluding those incentives, its core business remained in the red, posting an underlying operating loss of roughly 127.7 billion won for a third consecutive quarter. Management nevertheless expects to achieve a subsidy-free turnaround by the fourth quarter. Its order pipeline, however, suggests underlying demand remains solid. The company secured more than 100 gigawatt-hours of new orders for its 46-series cylindrical EV batteries in the first quarter, lifting its order backlog above 440 gigawatt-hours. It also plans to expand its North American ESS production capacity to more than 50 gigawatt-hours by year-end. "The ESS ecosystem has kept expanding quietly, even as the market looked away," said Kim Hyun-soo, an analyst at Hana Securities. "After LG Energy Solution won an Oracle order in May, a Google order was confirmed last week. The industry is at the threshold of a genuine surge in hyperscaler ESS demand." SK On, the smallest of the three battery makers, is aiming to return to profitability in the second half. The company is relying on aggressive cost-cutting, including shutting excess production lines and integrating affiliates, alongside what it expects to be another wave of ESS orders from AI data centers and solar power projects. The industry's brightest prospects now rest on that storage boom. Yet the same geopolitical tensions supporting EV demand have also created fresh supply-chain risks. Disruptions around Hormuz have constrained sulfur shipments, affecting production of sulfuric acid used to refine battery-grade nickel and lithium. The squeeze has reinforced Korea's longer-term effort to reduce dependence on Chinese battery materials. Samsung SDI underscored that strategy when it announced a 1.6 trillion won cathode materials supply agreement with domestic producer L&F. In the near term, however, the market is preparing for a sharp decline in U.S. EV sales. "Because subsidies expired on Sept. 30, 2025, pull-forward demand concentrated sales between July and September, meaning this year's third quarter will face a much steeper year-on-year comparison," Kim said. "But that has been anticipated since the beginning of the year. From October, the base effect eases, making a return to year-on-year growth likely." Another question is whether CATL, the world's largest battery maker, can erode Korea's position as it rolls out its new sodium-ion battery brand, expands domestic sales and targets European customers. Some analysts expect only limited impact. "The U.S. ESS market will be shaped by supply-chain de-risking requirements needed to qualify for tax credits, so CATL's expansion is unlikely to undermine the competitiveness of Korean manufacturers," said Chang Jung-hoon, an analyst at Samsung Securities. For now, raw material constraints have yet to derail the sector's recovery. But with lithium markets already shifting from years of oversupply toward deficit, Korea's battery makers may ultimately find that restoring earnings is easier than securing the critical materials needed to sustain growth. 2026-07-23 14:19:02
Naver exports smart-building tech to Tokyo tower in first commercial deal SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - Team Naver, the consortium of Naver affiliates including Naver itself and Naver Cloud, announced it has deployed the smart-building technology behind its "1784" headquarters at a major Tokyo commercial complex. Working with NTT East and Mitsui Fudosan, the company revealed Thursday that it has fitted Tokyo Midtown Yaesu, a mixed-use office and retail tower in central Tokyo, with the autonomous robots, cloud-based control systems and digital-twin infrastructure it has honed at 1784 over four years. Under the deal, the three firms have launched a cloud-based robot delivery service, ferrying food and drinks ordered through the Line app from restaurants on the basement and fifth floors to offices on the seventh. Four robots navigate the tower using Naver's Rookie machines, its ARC brain fleet-control platform and ARC eye vision-based positioning technology. Crucially, the company said it optimized the system to run in ordinary buildings that lack the robot-only elevators and bespoke cloud setups engineered into 1784. The ARC brain platform links the robots to elevators and speed gates through cloud processing, letting them move seamlessly through spaces shared with people. The three companies plan to widen the partnership into indoor augmented-reality navigation and digital-twin-based building management, extending their reach across the physical-AI field, Team Naver said. The project was led by Naver Cloud's Japan business team, drawing on Naver Labs' robotics and vision technology. 2026-07-23 09:58:35
Samsung Biologics posts 30% jump in second-quarter revenue SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - Samsung Biologics reported a 30 percent rise in second-quarter revenue to 1.32 trillion won ($894 million), lifted by full utilization of its first four plants and a favorable won-dollar exchange rate, the South Korean contract drugmaker said. According to regulatory filings released Thursday, operating profit climbed 23 percent from a year earlier to 586.4 billion won. The robust growth came despite the company's first-ever full walkout, a five-day strike from May 1 that halted some production batches after a parts-handling unit downed tools days earlier, choking the supply of raw materials. Samsung Biologics had estimated related losses at about 150 billion won. Shrugging off that disruption, the company said it expects to reach the upper end of its full-year 2026 revenue growth guidance of 15 percent to 20 percent, citing an expanding contribution from the fifth plant and the Rockville facility alongside the currency tailwind. The firm said it would open a European sales office in the Netherlands during the third quarter, adding to bases in New Jersey and Tokyo, and pointed to its acquisition of peptide specialist PolyPeptide Group and a secured site for a third bio campus as it pushes beyond antibody drugs into mRNA and antibody-drug conjugates. 2026-07-23 08:11:06
Coupang unit to fully compensate sellers for warehouse fire losses SEOUL, July 22 (AJP) - Coupang Fulfillment Services (CFS) announced Wednesday it will fully compensate third-party sellers for inventory destroyed in a fire at its logistics center in Incheon, moving to shield its merchant partners from mounting operational losses. The blaze, which broke out at the Seoknam-dong complex, gutted stock belonging to sellers enrolled in Rocket Growth, Coupang's fulfillment service in which merchants entrust goods to the company for storage and delivery. Compensation will extend beyond the area consumed by the flames to inventory left untouched by the fire, the company said, covering secondary damage such as delayed retrieval and dust contamination. As a result, stock held at the 31, 41, 42 and 43 centers — housed in the same building as the fire-hit No. 32 center, where inbound shipments had been suspended — also qualifies for reimbursement. The company said it will tally each seller's inventory and, from mid-August, individually notify merchants of their total compensation, expected payout dates and a pared-down set of requirements, waiving cumbersome documentation such as invoices and packaging footage. CFS added that it will run a dedicated Rocket Growth consultation channel offering one-on-one support, saying it would spare no effort to ensure its partners do not face managerial hardship because of the incident. 2026-07-22 15:21:45
S-Oil launches biofuel-blended marine fuel for shipping SEOUL, July 22 (AJP) - S-Oil, South Korea's fourth-largest oil refiner, announced it had begun supplying a biofuel-blended marine fuel as it moves to capture growing demand for cleaner-burning fuels in the global shipping industry. The new product, known as B30 VLSFO, combines conventional very low-sulphur fuel oil with about 30 percent sustainable biofuel. Because it can be used without any modification to a vessel's engines, the refiner said, it offers shipowners an immediate and practical way to meet tightening emissions rules imposed by the International Maritime Organization and the European Union. The company produces VLSFO at its Onsan plant and links it to nearby biofuel production and storage facilities, a setup it said minimizes logistics and sharpens operational efficiency. The Ulsan port draws heavy demand for biofuel-blended marine fuel, driven largely by car-carrier vessels, positioning the refiner to serve major customers quickly and reliably. "In the biofuel-blended marine fuel market, competitiveness rests not only on product quality but on securing a stable feedstock supply and an efficient delivery system," a company official said. "Building on our existing bunkering business and the strong supply infrastructure in the Onsan area, we plan to provide customers with stable and competitive low-carbon fuel." 2026-07-22 14:41:48
Korea's telecom trio begins selling Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses SEOUL, July 22 (AJP) - South Korea's three mobile carriers began selling Meta's "Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2)" artificial-intelligence glasses from Wednesday, pairing the device with tariff-linked discounts as they race to push AI services beyond the smartphone. SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus each said they would offer the AI eyewear through their retail and online channels, part of a broader strategy to extend smartphone-centered AI offerings onto new wearable devices and widen their AI ecosystems. Co-developed by Meta and global eyewear group EssilorLuxottica, the glasses respond to a spoken "Hey Meta" command, letting wearers converse with Meta AI for searches, recommendations, answers and real-time translation. The device carries a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera capable of 3K ultra-high-definition video, open-ear speakers and five microphones, and runs for up to about eight hours on a charge — or up to about 48 hours with its charging case. The carriers sought to soften the price with handset discounts and dedicated plans. KT said it would grant members a 10 percent discount and, through device-only tariffs, bring the effective monthly cost to the 10,000 won ($6.76) or 7,000 won range, while LG Uplus offered device discounts of up to 80 percent depending on the plan chosen. SK Telecom, for its part, tied installment discounts to its premium "Best" plans and stocked the glasses at its online store and six outlets across Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Each carrier also set up hands-on spaces — KT at 11 stores nationwide and SK Telecom at its six regional outlets — where shoppers can try the device's AI features and photo and video capture. The three companies said the launch marked the start of a wider push, with plans to expand their AI-device lineups and deepen AI-driven customer experiences linked to their telecom services. 2026-07-22 09:55:47
KakaoBank to go on full-day strike after wage talks collapse SEOUL, July 21 (AJP) -After mild hours-long log-off protests by workers across South Korea's top mobile platform Kakao group over the last month, the union at KakaoBank will go on a full-day strike on July 31 after wage negotiations collapsed. The KakaoBank union said Tuesday it decided to stage a one-day strike after mediation by the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission ended without agreement, clearing the way for industrial action. "Our company did not engage sincerely in negotiations, and the gap between labor and management remains too wide," Seo Seung-wook, head of Kakao's branch of the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers' Federation, said during a picketing rally at Kakao's Pangyo headquarters. The strike will apply only to KakaoBank, while the union has yet to announce whether workers at other Kakao affiliates will follow with similar full-day action. About 300 union members, including those from KakaoBank, took part in Tuesday's lunchtime picketing protest, according to the union. Wearing black shirts and masks, they held placards reading "Negotiate sincerely," "Share our achievements fairly," and "Stop management's monopoly." The protest followed a series of "Logout Days," when union members voluntarily took annual leave or scheduled time off and logged out of internal systems for several hours. That action caused no disruption to KakaoTalk or other major services because it largely relied on voluntary participation and the company's automated operations. KakaoBank's labor and management had entered mediation after failing to reach a wage agreement, but negotiators were unable to narrow differences during talks held Monday. The labor commission subsequently suspended mediation, determining that the two sides remained too far apart to continue discussions. Under South Korean labor law, the decision allows the union to proceed with strike action after completing internal voting procedures, which it has now done. The broader Kakao union also staged a lunchtime picketing campaign Tuesday at the company's Pangyo campus, but no additional industrial action has been announced for Kakao Corp. or other affiliates, including Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DK Techin and XL Games. Tuesday's protest, held during employees' lunch break without marches or rallies, was designed to minimize disruption to business operations. Kakao's messaging platform, KakaoTalk, which is used by the vast majority of South Koreans, was not affected. The labor dispute centers on compensation. The union has argued that employees deserve a larger share of the company's performance, while management maintains that the union's demands would place an excessive financial burden on the business. Shares of KakaoBank were down 0.67 percent at 22,400 won as of 1:25 p.m. Tuesday. 2026-07-21 13:28:35
Homeplus earns final three-month chance to avoid liquidation SEOUL, July 21 (AJP) -Homeplus, South Korea's bankrupt supermarket chain, gained a three-month reprieve in what could be its final chance to stay afloat after a Seoul bankruptcy court on Tuesday overturned its earlier decision to terminate the retailer's rehabilitation process. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court canceled its July 3 order ending Homeplus' court-led rehabilitation and extended the deadline for creditors to approve a restructuring plan until Sept. 4. The decision came after Homeplus secured a 200 billion won ($134 million) debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing package led by Meritz Financial Group, allowing the retailer to meet the minimum liquidity requirement the court had previously said was necessary to keep the rehabilitation process alive. Earlier this month, the court terminated Homeplus' rehabilitation after ruling that the company had failed to secure the minimum 200 billion won in operating funds required to continue the proceedings. Homeplus immediately appealed after arranging the emergency financing, which was approved by Meritz Financial Group shortly before the July 20 deadline. The rescue package was made possible after MBK Partners Chairman Kim Byung-ju agreed to personally guarantee the entire loan extended by Meritz's insurance, securities and capital units, removing a key obstacle to the financing. The extension gives Homeplus until Sept. 4 to win creditor approval for a rehabilitation plan that will determine whether South Korea's once second-largest hypermarket operator can survive or ultimately be liquidated. The retailer remains in a precarious position despite the court's decision. Earlier this month, Homeplus shut all 67 of its remaining hypermarkets after running out of cash to pay suppliers, electricity bills and other operating expenses, leaving about 12,000 employees, hundreds of suppliers and thousands of shopping mall tenants facing an uncertain future. The nationwide shutdown marked the collapse of a retailer that once challenged E-mart for leadership of South Korea's discount store market and underscored the mounting pressures facing traditional brick-and-mortar retailers from e-commerce competition, heavy debt burdens and slowing consumer spending. Although independent tenants inside Homeplus shopping malls have been allowed to continue operating, normal retail operations remain suspended while the company pursues its restructuring. The latest court ruling also eases immediate pressure on lawmakers, who had planned to summon executives from MBK Partners and Meritz Financial Group to a parliamentary hearing later this month over the retailer's collapse. Whether the hearing proceeds is now expected to depend on the progress of the rehabilitation process. Homeplus' fate will now hinge on whether it can secure creditor backing for its restructuring plan before the Sept. 4 deadline. Failure to do so would again raise the prospect of liquidation, ending one of South Korea's largest retail chains after more than two decades. 2026-07-21 11:38:01