South Korea; outlined by a sensitive border with its volatile neighbor, has a fascinating range of experiences for travelers and tourists, along with mind-blowing sceneries and 5000 years of arts and enriching past. Let us look into what South Korea has been up to this week.
The
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia retains its position as South Korea’s biggest crude
supplier in a situation where there is no supply of oil shipments from Iran. This
fact is confirmed by the customs data. Since US-driven sanctions against Iran
were reinstituted in May, South Korea’s oil imports from the second-largest
country in the Middle East have come to a standstill.
The
data, posted by the Korea National Oil Corporation, indicates that South Korea purchased
an overall quantity of 209,316 barrels in the initial eight months of this
year, which means a rise of 7.4% than the previous year.
The
US has been supplying more oil to South Korea. Statistics point out that crude
imports from the US to South Korea have increased by 51%. Specifically, this
July Seoul imported 14,782 barrels of crude oil from the US, a number that is
three-fold of what it was the previous year.
Because
of this, the US turned into South Korea’s second major supplier of crude oil, surpassing
Kuwait. Something that has never happened before. Through the previous eight
months, oil imports to South Korea have reached a count of 86,069 barrels, at a
cost of almost $5.7 billion.
Apart from this, South Korea’s crude imports from Kazakhstan shot up by 39% than the previous year, and then the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. UAE and Kuwait imported 33.7% and 13.8% more oil respectively.
South Korean oil refiners are trying to find other sources of condensed provision. Earlier, majority of the country’s refiners preferred Iranian ultra-light oil as a natural resource to manufacture petrochemicals.
South Korea was the chief buyer of naphtha-rich Iranian condensate, before the reinstating of US sanctions. Hanwha Total Petrochemical is the first South Korean refiner to expand its source of condensate outside Iran.
The company received 500,000 barrels of condensate from Saudi Arabia in August. Hanwha Total runs a condensate splitter in its factory in South Chungcheong province to cater to 180,000 barrels of condensate daily.
Previously, the company made its intention clear to hike the imports of condensate from Australia and Russia. As an attempt to support domestic refiners in finding alternative oil sources of supply, the government of South Korea is considering an extension of freight discounts for consignments of non-Middle East crude till the close of 2021, as reported in a release by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
LG Electronics announced that it is all set to put on sale its prize smartphone, V50S ThinQ in South Korea on Friday. The electronics manufacturer will hand out its add-on second-screen fitment, free-of-cost when purchased in combination with the main phone. It offers a dual-screen experience.
LG V50S ThinQ will only be available in black color, at a price tag of 1.2 million won ($999). One can get it in all three telecoms - SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus - with the telecoms capable of giving it tremendous marketing back up to the model to get the largest possible number of 5G subscribers by the time the year closes.
This phone runs on 5G technology and flaunts a 32-megapixel front camera, along with a 6.4-inch OLED display.
In the near future, the company has plans to sell the phone in North America and Europe.
In its income guide, LG expects a marginal increase in its profits for the third quarter, as against the same period of the previous year. The company foresees an operational profit of 781 billion won and revenue of 15.7 trillion won, which is 4.3% and 1.8% more every year.
The company hopes to minimize its mobile business losses due to its latest reshuffle.
LG has moved its smartphone manufacturing unit from South Korea to Vietnam in an attempt to save costs.