SK Opens a Nonprofit with BASF to Develop Standards for Social Values

August 19 | SK opens a non-profit organization with BASF to develop the standards for social values in three years

SK held an opening ceremony of the VBA (Value Balancing Alliance), a non-profit organization to jointly research standards to measure social values, at Frankfurt, Germany. The establishment of VBA is led by SK and BASF, a German chemical company, with the participation of eight global companies such as Bosch, SAP, Deutsche Bank, Novartis (Switzerland), Lafarge Holcim (France) and Philip Morris (US). The VBA aims to develop international accounting standards for social values by 2022 and recommend businesses around the world to use it through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). BASF’s suggestion to participate in VBA was made to President Chey Tae-won after seeing SK providing a separate session on social value at the Davos Forum held in Switzerland early this year. As Vice Chairman of VBA, SK will take the lead in developing international standards based on its know-how and experience in measuring social values.

August 7 | SKC-Kuwait PIC, a vhemical joint venture worth 1.5 trillion won

SKC and Kuwait’s PIC (Petrochemical Industries Company) signed an agreement for a chemical joint venture worth around 1.45 trillion won to become strategic partners. SKC’s board of directors has approved on the 7th to spin off its chemical business and sell a 49% stake to form a joint venture with PIC. PIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of KPC (Kuwait Petroleum Corporation). This agreement will facilitate SKC to reach its goal of achieving an annual PO (Propylene Oxide) capacity of 1 million tons. PO is the base material for PPG (Polypropylene Glycol) of polyurethane foams used as car interior material and PG(Propylen Glykol) used in making cosmetics and medicine. This partnership is based on mutual trust established through diverse joint businesses performed for a long time between SK and KPC which is PIC’s parent company. SKC and PIC will further strengthen their partnership and strive to make the joint venture become a top-tier global player in the PO market.

August 12 | SK hynix develops the fastest HBM2E in the industry

SK hynix announced that it successfully developed the fastest HBM2E DRAM in the industry on August 12. HBM2E is a next-generation HBM DRAM with a revolutionary data processing speed 50% faster compared to the existing HBM2. SK hynix’s HBM2E can support data processing of over 460 GB per second through 1,024 I/O units based on 3.6 Gbit/s speed performance. It is equivalent to processing 124 pieces of film with an image resolution of FHD (Full High Definition) a second. Eight 16 GB chips are vertically stacked using TSV (Through Silicon Via) technology to form a single package. “SH hynix will begin mass production in 2020 when the HBM2E market is expected to open up and will continue to strengthen its leadership in the premium memory market,” said Chun Jun-hyun, head of HBM Business Strategy.

August 13 | SK E&C wins financial awards in a total of 11 categories for the world's longest suspension bridge Canakkale construction

The Turkey Canakkale Project, the world’s longest suspension bridge construction project that SK E&C and Daelim Industrial Co., Ltd. are participating, was chosen as the Project Finance Deal of the Year by six global financial magazines including PFI (Project Finance International), IJ (Infrastructure Journal) Global, and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) Finance and won financial awards in a total of 11 categories in the first half of this year alone. The project is to construct the world’s longest suspension bridge crossing the Dardanelles Strait in the Canakkale province of Turkey. This is a 3.1 billion euro (around 4 trillion won)-worth mega project financed by SK E&C, Daelim, and the Turkish companies Limak and Yapi Merkezi, each having an equal share of 25% in the project. “It’s an honor to win such a number of finance awards from the world’s leading financial magazines,” said SK E&C’s official. “It is credited to domestic construction companies’ cooperation capability and financial export support by the Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation,” he added.

August 13 | SK telecom to provide the world's first ULL Service through 5GX MEC platform

SK telecom released its 5GX MEC (Mobile Edge Computing), a key solution for Ultra Low Latency Service of the 5G wireless communication and announced that it will provide 5G customers with the world’s best MEC services. MEC is the key technology for 5G networks. It allows low latency service which is the key to 5G by setting up small data centers nearby customers to reduce the distance for data transmission. MEC technology is also needed for services requiring immediacy in automatic driving as well as ceaseless streaming of large content such as AR and VR. SK telecom is going to expand the 5G ecosystem using the 5GX MEC. As part of the efforts, the world’s first 5G MEC hackathon will be held. The hackathon will serve to facilitate the 5G MEC ecosystem in cooperation with SK telecom’s global partners such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, MobiledgeX, Microsoft, etc.

August 15 | SK innovation, the country's first to successfully procure a Green Loan, increasing investments in new growth engine

SK innovation announced on August 15 that it secured financing for future investments by procuring a Green Loan, a first among Korean companies. Starting with this deal, SK innovation will use the funds to be secured by next year to invest in electric vehicle (EV) battery plants under construction in the United States and Hungary and to build LiBS plants in China and Poland. The loan is worth around 800 billion won. A Green Loan is financing for investments building environment-friendly facilities. SK innovation is the first to secure a green loan in Korea. “Procurement of a green loan shows that SK innovation’s EV battery and separator manufacturing business has been recognized to have a value and growth potential as an eco-friendly future business,” said SK innovation official. “We will continue to generate social and economic values at the same time,”