LG Chem plunging into loss in Q4, full-year results hit hard

The market impact of

the global petrochemical industry is experiencing a cyclical winter, superimposed on the short-term pressure on demand for electric vehicle battery materials, South Korea chemical giant LG Chemical suffered a major financial impact in the quarter ended December. Data show that the company's sales in the quarter shrank by 6.1 to 12.33 trillion won year-on-year, reflecting the continued weakness of the terminal consumer market.

's financial performance fell off a cliff
regulatory documents show that LG Chem recorded a net loss of 89.2 billion won (approximately US $0.613 billion) in the fourth quarter, in sharp contrast to its net profit of 0.1285 billion won in the same period last year. What's more serious is that operating profit plummeted to -252 billion won from 247.4 billion won in the same period last year, highlighting the serious deterioration of the profitability of the main business.

The full-year pressure situation continued in

. The full-year data for the 2024 fiscal year were also not optimistic: net income plunged 74.9 per cent year-on-year to 515 billion won, operating profit shrank 63.8 per cent to 916.79 billion won, and sales fell 11.5 per cent to 48.9 trillion won. Despite a 81.84 per cent stake in LG Energy Solutions, cyclical fluctuations in the battery materials market continued to be a significant drag on overall performance.

Strategic contraction in response to the crisis in

to ward off the cold market, the company announced that it would significantly reduce the scale of capital expenditure in 2024 from 4 trillion won to 2-3 trillion won, focusing on high-return areas. Management pointed out at the financial briefing that the industry is currently experiencing a "painful period of electric transformation" and that demand will take time to recover.