South Korean battery giant LG Chem said the company achieved record battery sales in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Battery sales for the period exceeded KRW2 trillion (US$1.8 billion), helping push overall sales for the whole of 2018 to a total of KRW28.18tn— the highest since the company was created.
LG Chem said while overall sales grew 9.7% year-on-year in 2018, operating profit fell 23.3% year-on-year to KRW2.24tn.
Chief operating officer Chung Ho-Young said automobile batteries achieved “break-even point” in the fourth quarter. “However, in the basic materials sector, demand is shrinking due to trade disputes, reducing the scale for profit.”
But Chung said the battery division “will focus on increasing sales of automobiles and energy storage system batteries and improving profitability, while small batteries are expected to expand growth based on new markets for cylindrical batteries”.
BEST Battery Briefing reported last month that LG Chem planned to invest the equivalent of more than US$1 billion to expand its battery manufacturing capacity in eastern China.
