Category: Korea-Business

It looks like even more chipmaking capacity may be coming to the U.S.:

SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s advanced HBM packaging facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, on Aug. 27, where SK hynix plans to begin producing “Made in USA” HBM from the second half of 2029. (SK hynix)

“I think we need to build a factory in the United States. If possible, I believe we should build it,” SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in July, describing the “enormous pressure” from customers and governments to supply more memory chips. SK hynix was already preparing a US production base, but only for the later stages of making its most valuable artificial intelligence memory.

Its more than $4 billion Indiana plant, which broke ground last month, will receive advanced DRAM wafers made in South Korea and package and turn them into high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, from 2029. The memory chips themselves will still be fabricated in Korea.

The question now is whether SK hynix is willing to move part of the chipmaking itself to the US. Reuters reported Sept. 16 that SK hynix was discussing a bigger step, either leasing part of Intel’s Ohio complex to produce memory chips or forming a venture with Intel and major cloud companies seeking secure supplies. Two days later, Solidigm, SK hynix’s US NAND subsidiary, was reported to be considering a separate NAND plant in the US.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

If these workers were in fact working at this plant on tourist visas then I don’t see how they are going to win this lawsuit:

LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group are distancing themselves from the legal actions of workers against the U.S. government over their detention during last year’s immigration raid at the companies’ joint battery plant in Georgia. 

An LG Energy Solution official told The Korea Times Wednesday that the company was not aware that employees were taking legal action until media reports emerged Tuesday night. The official added that the company would not get involved because the legal actions were based on individual decisions by the workers, and the company is not tracking who is joining the campaign.

An official at Hyundai Motor Group also said none of the company’s employees were among those detained at the time, adding that it is not involved in legal action taken individually by workers from partner companies or those dispatched to the site.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is right now very hard for a person in their 20’s to secure a job in South Korea:

Job information pamphlets are displayed at a university career support center in Seoul on Sept. 9, 2026. (Yonhap)

The number of employed people in their 20s fell at the fastest pace this year since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, data showed Sunday, amid a trend toward entering the labor market at a later age.

The number of employed people in their 20s averaged 3.38 million in the January-August period, down 193,000 from the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS).

The decline was the steepest since 1998, when the figure plunged by 550,000 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the article doesn’t say what the reasons are. However, it makes me wonder if AI is having an impact on entry level jobs in Korea?

The Korean defense industry has definitely come a long ways the past 25 years:

Defense News released the list of the top 100 defense firms, including Hanwha, LIG Nex1, Hyundai Rotem and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). Four American firms, Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, took the top four spots.

Hanwha ranked 16th with its 2025 defense revenue totaling about US$10.44 billion, up from 22nd place in last year’s list.

LIG Nex1 took 52nd place with defense

revenue totalling about US$3.03 billion, up from 53rd place, while Hyundai Rotem ranked 61st, up from 67th place. KAI ranked 74th, down from 62nd place.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

For those about to exit service and have served in Korea, this may be an opportunity worth checking out:

“In recent years, the number of Korean companies expanding into the U.S. has increased significantly and demand for local workers has risen rapidly, particularly in advanced industries such as semiconductors and batteries,” Lee told The Korea Times. “But one of the biggest difficulties these companies face is securing local workers.”

That prompted KCCI to look toward U.S. service members who had served in Korea — a group that could offer Korean employers both professional skills and firsthand familiarity with Korean culture and workplace practices.

“They understand Korean culture and the business environment through their time serving in Korea, and their military careers have equipped them with responsibility, leadership and teamwork,” said Lee, who is also a vice chairman of SK Group.

“We saw a clear potential to connect the workforce needs of Korean companies in the U.S. with new career opportunities for service members leaving the military.”

KCCI signed an agreement with the foundation in September last year to support USFK personnel transitioning to civilian careers. The online platform was completed in November and officially launched in March.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know if this is going to work because Trader Joe’s has some significant loyalty from its customers that HomePlus has likely lost a lot of:

Embattled hypermarket chain Homeplus is pinning its revival on a new type of store modeled on US grocery chain Trader Joe’s, a leap of faith that has stirred both hope for a business remade and skepticism that a company on the edge of bankruptcy has the footing to pull it off.

Homeplus laid out the plan last week, after the Seoul Bankruptcy Court extended its rehabilitation deadline to Sept. 4. Once 200 billion won ($136.8 million) in debtor-in-possession financing arrives, the retailer intends to reopen all 67 temporarily shuttered stores, converting them into single-floor locations of roughly 3,305 square meters centered on food, private-label goods and everyday essentials.

Taking cues from the US grocery chain’s smaller-format stores, which stock roughly 4,000 items compared with the 30,000 to 50,000 typical of a conventional hypermarket, Homeplus hopes a leaner assortment weighted toward its private label, Simplus, will cut procurement and inventory costs.

“Trader Joe’s is a private-label-focused supermarket selling primarily food and daily necessities in optimally sized stores, where more than 80 percent of the products sold are its own brands,” the company said in a statement.

As appealing as it sounds, Homeplus’s shot at replicating the Trader Joe’s model depends on more than store format, analysts say, with the US chain’s success owing to a combination of strong product curation, brand loyalty and consumption patterns unique to the American market.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is some really bad luck that may ultimately cost Hanhwa Ocean hundreds of millions of dollars in losses:

Hanwha Ocean’s liquefied natural gas carrier / Courtesy of Hanwha Ocean

Hanwha Ocean is saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in financial burden, as a fleet of six icebreaking liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers remain undelivered at a domestic shipyard due to sanctions on Russia’s Arctic project, according to industry sources and a report.

The specialized vessels, built for Moscow’s high-stakes Arctic energy expansion venture, have turned into a costly asset for Hanwha Ocean, leaving the Korean shipbuilder with few viable options beyond waiting indefinitely for new buyers or selling the ships at steep discounts.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty amazing how stock markets continue to set new highs despite the oil disruptions in the Middle East:

South Korean stocks opened at a fresh record high Monday as investor appetite for tech shares helped offset uncertainty surrounding negotiations between the United States and Iran over a peace agreement.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 120.03 points, or 1.42 percent, to 8,596.18 as of 9:15 a.m., continuing its upward momentum after opening at a fresh high.

The KOSPI closed at a record high of 8,476.15 on Friday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that according to the article that Samsung employees have seen their average pay rise by 25% since last year and want to go on strike now for even more pay:

Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seocho District, southern Seoul / Yonhap

The estimated average monthly pay for Samsung Electronics employees reached 12 million won ($7,966) in the first quarter of this year, analysis showed Tuesday, as the company’s unionized workers moved closer to a possible strike over performance bonuses.

The Korea CXO Institute released its report, titled “Analysis of Estimated Average Employee Pay at Samsung Electronics in the First Quarter of 2026,” on Tuesday, estimating the average first-quarter compensation per employee at roughly 36 million won.

This figure amounts to about 12 million won per month for the tech giant’s 125,000 domestic employees, representing a more than 25 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea’s defense industry needs to send Putin a gift basket because the war he launched against Ukraine has led to strong growth in weapon sales to European nations:

Finland has decided to additionally introduce K9 self-propelled howitzers. Finland introduced 96 K9 self-propelled howitzers in 2017 and is expected to operate a total of 208 units by introducing an additional 112 units in this second phase.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced on the 9th that it had signed a second export contract for K9 self-propelled howitzers worth 546 million euros (approximately 940 billion Korean won) with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Finnish Ministry of Defence in Helsinki, Finland. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration stated, “The additional contract was decided after the Finnish military tested the K9 self-propelled howitzer in actual operations for several years and confirmed its exceptional mobility and firepower even in harsh Nordic environments, such as extreme cold and heavy snow.” The second-phase contract volume is planned to be delivered in full by the early 2030s.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.