Fog hangs in the air at Haeundae Beach in Busan on July 7.YONHAP
Good evening. I hope you are all having a great Tuesday night! Here are the stories you need to know in Korea.
In today's news, Samsung has beaten expectations with its latest profit record for the second quarter. We look at why Koreans are registering marriages earlier. Hanwha Ocean shares take a dive after the company loses its bid for a Canadian submarine contract.
So how much did Samsung Electronics make in the second quarter? Samsung logged a preliminary operating profit of 84.9 trillion won ($58.4 billion) for the second quarter of the year despite fears of a slowdown in AI investment. The figure is an over 19-fold surge on year.
What's behind the company's profit? Samsung hasn't provided a breakdown by business division and is set to release its full earnings later this month. However, the figure comes as no surprise to those from the company. Kim Yong-kwan, president of corporate management, strategy and operations for Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) Division, said this year's profit would meet market consensus at a town hall meeting last Friday. “This year's profit will exceed the cumulative profit generated over the past 40 years since we entered the semiconductor business,” Kim said.
Continued investment on the cards According to Kim, the company is expected to continue its investment push, with expectations that AI chip demand will keep growing. “We have invested more than 40 trillion won every year and will continue to increase our investment,” Kim said.
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Higher cost of living behind earlier marriage registrations
What's behind getting married earlier in Korea? While many are marrying for romantic reasons, a new trend has emerged where couples say "I do" a little earlier, at least in the legal sense, in order to take advantage of mortgage programs and improve the chance of securing homes in Seoul.
In the "legal sense"? What does that mean? While many of these couples are intending to hold a wedding eventually, they choose to register their marriages earlier than their actual wedding dates to be able to apply for loans and mortgage programs. Many mortgage programs have competitive processes involved, so the quicker these couples can register their marriages, the quicker they can get the ball rolling in the quest for a home.
Does the data back up this trend? The marriage rate among women aged 25 to 29 rose to 44.3 marriages per 1,000 people, up 4 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. For men in the same age bracket, the figure rose by 2.2 to 25 marriages per 1,000 people.
Hanwha Ocean has lost its bid to build Canadian submarines? Yes, it has. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the decision that the country would go with Germany's TKMS to build its submarine fleet, in a deal worth up to 60 billion Canadian dollars ($44 billion). "This project is about much more than acquiring submarines. It builds Canadian industrial capacity," Carney said.
What is going on with Hanwha Ocean's shares? After the announcement, the shares of the Korean shipbuilding company dropped over 23 percent from the previous session's closing price of 116,100 won ($76.24), trading at about 89,000 won around midday. Carney said, however, that Canada still retains the authority to open negotiations with Hanwha Ocean as runner-up for the bid.
What has been the reaction to the decision? Commentary online has criticized the decision. In one Reddit thread, a user said the German company's schedule was "unrealistic." They added that scheduling was "one of the weakest parts of the German submission — and strongest of the Korean," with others saying that the contract would take a long time to fulfill. Defenders of the decision say the German submarine's smaller size is more suited to Canada's needs.
