South Korea is expected to export a record US$14.5 billion worth of cellular phones this year in a major boost to the country's economic recovery efforts, the Yonhap news agency said yesterday.
South Korea exported 112 million cellphones worth US$9.6 billion last year, accounting for 26.8 percent of worldwide hand-set production.
In the first eight months of this year, cellular phone exports jumped 36.1 percent compared to the same period last year to US$7.45 billion, Yonhap said, quoting officials at the Ministry of Information and Communication.
The officials predicted that shipments will pick up during the remaining three months, helping prop up the nation's slumping economy, Yonhap said. The country's GDP is expected to be under 3 percent this year, compared to 6.3 percent last year.
The companies leading the export growth are Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Co, which together are expected to ship more than US$10 billion worth of cell phones this year.
Samsung Electronics, the world's third-largest handset vendor, said that it can reach its sales target of US$7.27 billion this year, helped by expanded demand in the North American and Middle East markets.
Samsung Electronics also plans to sell smart phones, which feature an operating system for running software in handsets, in North America in the third-quarter.
LG Electronics, the world's sixth-largest handset maker, also targets US$2.73 billion in cell phone exports this year, Yonhap said.
LG Electronics officials said its cell phone exports to the US are expected to far exceed expectations, helped by aggressive marketing campaigns by the country's two wireless giants -- Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS -- and faster-than-expected handset replacements as more consumers are switching to camera-equipped phones, Yonhap said.
Meanwhile, Pantech & Curitel Co, South Korea's third-largest mobile handset maker, said yesterday it has received an order to export 2.6 million cell phones worth US$430 million to American distributor Audiovox Corp. The CDMA-based phones would include color screens and built-in cameras.
"The deal provides us a stable foothold to enter the US mobile phone market," the company said in a statement.
"This is our first shipment of high-quality phones to the US market and we want to expand sales further in the future," Song Moon-seop, a chief executive of the company, said in the statement.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the