Samsung SDI Co.’s battery production line in Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul, is shown in this photo provided by the company on May 13, 2020.
SEOUL, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung SDI Co. said Thursday its first-quarter net profit more than doubled from a year earlier on the back of strong sales in mid-to-large battery and premium electric vehicle battery products.
Net income came to 362.7 billion won (US$286.6 million) in the January-March period, compared with a net profit of 150 billion won the previous year, the South Korean battery maker said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit also more than doubled to 322.3 billion won from 133.2 billion won a year ago. Sales rose 36.7 percent to 4.04 trillion won over the cited period, surpassing the 4 trillion-won mark for the first time.
Operating profit was 12.3 percent higher than the market estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The stronger bottom line came as increased sales of mid-to-large batteries and its signature EV battery Gen.5 helped improve the profitability, the company said in a release.
It booked 3.31 trillion won in sales from the battery business, up 39 percent from a year earlier, with the operating profit surging by more than threefold to 165 billion won.
Efforts to minimize the impact from the rise in raw material costs, such as by keeping the selling prices proportionate to raw material prices, helped the bottom line improve.
The revenue from commercial energy storage systems (ESS) declined due to seasonal factors, but the sales grew for household ESS and battery backups, known as uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
Sales also increased for small cylindrical batteries, widely used in cars and high-power electric tools, and pouch batteries for smartphones primarily supplied to Samsung Electronics.
Its electronic materials division posted 730.4 billion won in sales, up 26.8 percent, with the operating income growing 82.3 percent on-year to 157.3 billion won.
Samsung SDI said it will focus on landing new supply orders for its next-generation Gen.6 battery this year. It will also work to manage the supply chain risks stemming from the prolonged Russia-Ukraine crisis to minimize any impact, the company said.
Shares in Samsung SDI rose 1.36 percent to 598,000 won on the main Seoul bourse on Thursday, roughly in line with the broader KOSPI’s 1.08 percent gain. The earnings result was released before the market opened.
(Yonhap)
