Major S. Korean Firms' R&D Spending Gains 2 pct This Year | Be Korea-savvy

Major S. Korean Firms’ R&D Spending Gains 2 pct This Year


This file photo shows the buildings of South Korea's major companies in Seoul. (Yonhap)

This file photo shows the buildings of South Korea’s major companies in Seoul. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire)Major South Korean companies’ spending on research and development (R&D) rose nearly 2 percent in the first three quarters of the year despite weaker sales amid the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said Wednesday.

R&D expenditures by 217 large companies in Asia’s fourth-largest economy totaled 40.2 trillion won (US$37 billion) in the January-September period, up 2.03 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from CEO Score.

Their combined sales fell 4.85 percent on-year to 1,178.7 trillion won over the cited period, with the ratio of R&D expenditures to revenue gaining 0.23 percentage point to 3.41 percent.

The tally covers companies that belong to the country’s top 500 companies by sales and have announced their R&D spending in quarterly reports.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s No. 1 smartphone and memory chip maker, was by far the largest R&D spender with 15.9 trillion won, becoming the sole company to spend more than 10 trillion won.

Five other companies — LG Electronics, SK hynix, Hyundai Motor, LG Display and Kia Motors — spent more than 1 trillion won on R&D projects each.

R&D expenditures by those six big spenders accounted for 65.2 percent of the total during the nine-month period.

Internet portal giant Naver registered the highest R&D spending-to-sales ratio of 25 percent, trailed by major drug firm Hanmi Pharmaceutical with 23.4 percent and top mobile game developer Netmarble Games with 20.6 percent.

(Yonhap)

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