Category: General

South Korea’s flat-screen maker LG Display Co. said Thursday it remained in the red in the first quarter of this year but the deficit narrowed on its cost-saving efforts.

Its operating loss reached 469.4 billion won (US$341.1 million) for the January-March period, compared with a loss of 1.09 trillion won a year earlier, according to the company in a regulatory filing.

LG Display posted operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2024 after six consecutive quarterly losses.

Its sales jumped 19.1 percent on-year to 5.25 trillion won for the three-month period, while its net loss reduced to 761.3 billion won from 1.15 trillion won.

The operating loss was 20.7 percent lower than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

LG Display said its weak bottomline is attributable to low seasonal cycles in the first quarter.

But the quarterly loss reduced from a year ago as its efforts to change its business portfolio focusing on organic light emittin
g diode products and strict cost-saving activities.

The company said its first-quarter sales rose thanks to an increase in shipments of TV and monitor panels.

Sales of screens for IT products like monitors, laptops and tablets accounted for 40 percent of the company’s total sales for the January-March period, followed by mobile displays and others with 28 percent and TV panels with 22 percent.

LG Display said it will expand the production of premium panels for TV, IT, mobiles and automobiles and streamline its cost structure in a way to improve its balance sheet.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SK hynix Inc. said Thursday it swung to a profit in the first quarter of this year on the back of rising global demand for premium memory chip products used for artificial intelligence (AI) computing.

The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker posted an operating profit of 2.88 trillion won (US$2.09 billion) for the January-March period, compared with a loss of 3.4 trillion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

It is the second-highest quarterly operating profit, following the records of the first quarter of 2018.

Its net profit came to 1.91 trillion won, turning from a loss of 2.58 trillion won a year earlier.

Sales shot up 144.3 percent to 12.42 trillion won, marking a record high for a first quarter.

The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 1.53 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

SK hynix attributed the larger-than-expected first-quarter performance to robust sa
les of its premium products for artificial intelligence, including high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and a rebound in demand for NAND flash memory chips.

“An increase in the sales of AI server products backed by its leadership in AI memory technology, including HBM, and continued efforts to prioritize profitability led to a 734 percent on-quarter jump in the operating profit,” the company said in a statement.

SK hynix expects the memory chip market will experience steady growth in the coming months as demand for AI memory continues to rise and the market for the conventional DRAM starts to recover in the second half.

Moreover, inventories both at suppliers and customers are forecast to decrease thanks to rising production of premium products such as HBM and relatively decreasing supply of conventional DRAMs.

SK hynix said it will increase the supply volume of HBM3E products, the up-to-date HBM that was mass-produced in March for the first time in the industry, and expand its customer base.

The company sa
id it will begin providing HBM3E with 12 layers of DRAM chips from next year in a bid to absorb new demand for the higher-performance AI chips. Currently, the eight-layer HBM3E chips are leading the industry.

“We are preparing to complete the development of the 12-layer HBM3E in the third quarter and the customer verification in line with our customers’ schedules,” SK hynix said during an earnings call. “We are preparing to supply the product in a stable way when demand starts to increase in earnest next year.”

HBM chips, known for their vertical interconnection of multiple DRAM chips, significantly enhance data processing speed, making them indispensable memory components for AI systems, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

SK hynix has recently solidified its leadership position in the booming AI memory semiconductor sector as its HBM3E products are key components of U.S. AI semiconductor powerhouse Nvidia Corp.’s AI processors.

It also plans to introduce 32 gigabits DDR5 products based on the 1bnm process, the fi
fth generation of the 10nm technology, within this year to strengthen its leadership in the high-capacity server DRAM market.

For the NAND business, SK hynix said it will seek product optimization to sustain the trend of earnings recovery by swiftly responding to market demands with an optimized product lineup.

Earlier this week, the chipmaker announced plans to invest 5.3 trillion won to convert a new fab named M15X in Cheongju, approximately 112 kilometers southeast of Seoul, into a DRAM production base in a bid to meet rising demand for AI semiconductors.

SK hynix said aside from the M15X fab, it will also carry out investments in advanced packaging facilities in Indiana in the United States and the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in South Korea as planned over the longer term.

As a result, SK hynix’s investment for this year is expected to be larger than initially planned at the beginning of 2024.

“In addition to the plan to increase investment to meet rising customer demand, SK hynix will also boost su
pply of conventional DRAM in line with the market trend, which it expects to lead to a steady growth of the global memory market and an improved investment efficiency and financial soundness of the company,” the company said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The minor Rebuilding Korea Party chose Rep. Hwang Un-ha as its floor leader Thursday after the party led by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk seized 12 seats and became the third-largest party in the incoming National Assembly.

Hwang, who won a second term in this month’s parliamentary elections, was unanimously selected as the party’s whip during a general meeting of the party’s lawmakers-elect.

Hwang was first elected to the National Assembly as a member of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), but he quit the DP and joined Cho’s party ahead of the April 10 elections and won reelection as a proportional representation candidate.

“We will fight against the prosecution’s dictatorship most strongly, decisively and clearly at the front,” Hwang said in a press conference, after he was chosen as the party’s floor leader.

He vowed to maintain a “cooperative” relationship with the DP, adding that the two are already in discussions to propose a bill calling for a special investigation into Han Dong-hoon, the
former leader of the ruling People Power Party.

Launching a special prosecution investigation into Han has been one of the party’s main election pledges.

Hwang was sentenced to three years in prison in his first trial held last November on charges of intervening in the Ulsan mayoral election to help then President Moon Jae-in’s close friend get elected as mayor.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

LG Energy Solution Ltd., South Korea’s leading battery maker, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit plunged 62 percent from a year earlier due to slowing electric vehicle sales.

Net profit for the three months ended in March plummeted to 212.1 billion won (US$154 million) from 562 billion won in the same period of last year, the company said in a statement.

Operating profit also dropped 75 percent to 157.3 billion won in the first quarter from 633.2 billion won a year ago. Sales fell 30 percent to 6.12 trillion won from 8.74 trillion won.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

“Nong Nice” has insight into Phra Phayom, warning that if you want to pay homage to someone, you must study and understand. While the Niramit Devajuti page Ask the Buddhist office to be fair. Appeal to all media outlets for distorting facts and unethical practices.

From the case of “Nong Nice Thewaniramitjuti,” an 8-year-old boy who claimed to be the son of the Lord Buddha, teaching Dhamma by connecting the mind. Understanding various stories, Phra Phayom Kalyano said that in this case, the Buddhist school You may need to be careful in taking action. Because he is also a child, he must be very sensitive. If you’re going to pay homage Please study and learn to understand the connection of the mind. Where does it come from in the Tripitaka?

Now, as critics say, the mind is not connected. It became angry, sometimes angry at Prairie, sometimes angry at Num Kanchai. Now if you really disappeared It became very difficult to connect. Who learned the lesson from believing easily? Where do you invite me to go? What
do I do? Don’t be too quick to deny that you didn’t do it. And don’t rush to admit that you did it. If we hurry to accept it, bad things will happen and we will be in trouble. But if the story is good and useful, we will lose the opportunity.

On the Niramit Devajuti page Ask the Buddhist office to be fair. Appeal to all media outlets for distorting the facts and unethical practices, fighting back after a picture of Nong Nice was shown bowing down to a monk from a forest temple. Confirming that Nong Nice has never disrespected a monk. or Buddhism And Nong Nice never made the monk bow down.

Source: Thai News Agency

Bueng Kan, Central Investigation Police (CIB) arrested a Mae Lao along the Mekong River. Sex trafficking of Thai-Lao girls under 15 years of age

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and the Human Trafficking Suppression Division (CDC) jointly arrested Mrs. Rombai for the crime of “trafficking in humans by procuring business etc. for illegal exploitation of prostitution of children under 15 years of age, etc.’ The arrest was made at a karaoke shop in Bueng Kan Province.

In this case, the police team arrested We were informed that a karaoke shop in the area of ??Pak Khat Subdistrict, Pak Khat District, Bueng Kan Province opened as a restaurant, providing karaoke singing, and selling liquor and alcoholic beverages. Seeking to take advantage of the prostitution of children under 15 years of age, they therefore planned to inspect and arrest them. By disguising himself as a tourist to use the service. It was found that the waitresses were young Thai and Laotian women under 15 years of age, drinking, eating and
singing with customers. in the manner of service Customers can hug, kiss, kiss in an open manner. and that sexual services were actually offered for 3,000-3,500 baht per time, with Mrs. Rombai, the accused, being the shop keeper. Will charge 300 baht per time for taking young employees out with customers. Benefits will be received in cash or transferred to their own bank accounts. Officers then went to help the victims. and arrest the accused Handed over to the investigating officers of Sub-Division 3, Crime Suppression Division, for further legal action.

Source: Thai News Agency

Metropolitan Police detectives plan to arrest Dr. Thip, claiming to be a brain surgeon. Fraudulent medical personnel and civil servants Lost more than a million baht

The police arrested him. Ms. Suwanampa or Pla, age 35, is accused of an arrest warrant for the offense of “fraud and import into the computer system which distorted computer data or counterfeit, whether in whole or in part or false computer information in a way that is likely to cause damage to others’ before the arrest The police received information that Faculty of Medicine, Phaya Thai Hospital A person using the name Suwan Ampha was found to be falsifying identification cards for personnel of the hospital’s Faculty of Medicine. The forged ID card is an old version of the faculty card. which is no longer used at present The card was used to impersonate a brain surgeon at the hospital’s Faculty of Medicine. and used it to deceive money from many patients and staff within the hospital by the hospital’s Faculty of Medicine An investigation was co
nducted and it was found that none of the persons using the aforementioned names were personnel of the hospital’s Faculty of Medicine. and not a person related to the hospital’s Faculty of Medicine which makes the hospital’s Faculty of Medicine damaged

Later, officials checked and found that the person in question was Miss Suwan Ampha which has an arrest warrant issued by the Ratchaburi District Court The circumstance is Around January 2020, while the victim was using Facebook and had a Facebook user account named “Personal Information”, she added friends. After that, the said Facebook messaged me to talk and introduced myself as a doctor at a hospital named Miss Suwan Ampha or Pla. The victims talked continuously until they started dating each other. Later, around April 2023, the victim and Ms. Suwan Ampha They broke up, but it appears that before they broke up, Miss Suwan Ampha He came to ask the victim to find approximately 300,000 baht, claiming to the victim that the money was to be used to compensate t
he deceased relative who had performed surgery and died. The victim believed that it was true and transferred the amount several times. The total amount of damage was 1,283,620 baht, which the victim later found. Miss Suwan Ampha There is no connection. with the hospital and is not a doctor or hospital official in any way Later, the investigating officer submitted to the court requesting approval of an arrest warrant. and Metropolitan Police investigators tracked down and arrested him. The accused while dressed in the hospital’s medical personnel uniform. There is also the name of the accused in English on the left side of the shirt’s chest. Then he was transported Muang Ratchaburi Police Station Continue to be prosecuted according to law.

The accused has confessed to all the charges against him. He graduated from Mathayom 6 at a school in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Never have a history of being convicted or have Has been arrested before.

Source: Thai News Agency

A stronger partnership between South Korea and African countries is “no longer a choice but a necessity,” South Korean envoys stationed in Africa said Thursday, ahead of the upcoming Korea-Africa Summit.

“In terms of diplomacy, (Africa) is a good place to realize our global pivotal state diplomacy, with 55 members in the African Union,” one of the ambassadors told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The envoy stressed that the conditions for South Korea’s entry into the African market are “in place,” given the widespread awareness of Korean technology and the strong desire toward the success story of Korea.

“Overall, (cooperation with) Africa is no longer a choice but a necessity,” he said.

Another envoy, also speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed the need to differentiate South Korea’s approach to cooperation with Africa from those of China and Japan.

He highlighted Seoul’s unique position as a country that has the experience of being colonized and a country that has advanced from an underdevelo
ped country to a developed country.

“We’re the only country to have experienced all levels of development,” he said.

South Korea is set to host the inaugural summit with African nations in Seoul on June 4 and 5.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

LG H andH Co. on Thursday reported its first-quarter net income of 113.1 billion won (US$82.3 million), up 17.4 percent from a year earlier.

Operating profit for the January-March period was 151 billion won, up 3.5 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Revenue rose 2.7 percent to 1.72 trillion won.

The operating profit was 16.3 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. The estimate of net profit was not available.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Kim Yuna, the lead singer of the modern rock band Jaurim, released her fifth individual full-length album on Thursday, her agency, Interpark Entertainment, said.

“Sensual Novel” is her first solo album in about eight years since “The Pain of Others” in 2016.

The new album has 10 tracks, led by two singles whose Korean titles translate as “Rose-colored Life” and “The End.”

“The End” is a song that captures the essence of Kim’s signature ballad style, while “Rose-colored Life” is a song that features a full-fledged tango sound.

“The two lead tracks have different charms that give listeners a deep impression,” the agency said in a release.

Source: Yonhap News Agency