Astonishing Profits
LG Chem announced on August 6 that its battery business unit recorded 1.4053 trillion won (US$1.3505 billion) in sales and 42.4 billion won (US$40.8 million) in operating profits in the first half. The sales increased 16.1 percent from a year earlier, and the profits skyrocketed by 909.5 percent.
The battery division’s ratio to total sales and business profits are just 12.2 percent and 5.9 percent. However, the division distinguished itself while the overall operating profits of LG Chem dropped by 20.7 percent. The petrochemical business unit and the information and electronic material division lost 13.3 percent and 61.0 percent in operating profits, respectively.
The sales goal of the battery division for this year is 3 trillion won, 400 billion won higher than last year’s goal. The average capacity utilization of the plants in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province and Holland, MI jumped from 60.2 percent to 71.5 percent between last year and Q1 this year. The percentage is expected to keep going up, with the battery business in a boom cycle these days.
“We are planning to record approximately two trillion won in sales in the fields of electric vehicle battery and energy storage system battery in 2016,” said LG Chem President and CFO Jo Seok-je, adding, “We will come up with a double-digit profit rate as well.”