By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
LG Display, formerly LG.Philips LCD, posted its strongest quarterly operating profit in the first quarter of the year, riding on the global boom of the flat-screen TV market.
The world’s No. 2 manufacturer of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels after Samsung Electronics said Thursday that its operating profit in the three-month period reached 881 billion won, a dramatic turnaround from a 208 billion won loss a year earlier.
``Our quarterly performance was better than expected,’’ Jeong Ho-young, the company’s chief financial officer, said at the earnings conference in Yeouido, Seoul.
``Weakening local currency against the U.S. dollar has additionally contributed for the company to bring out such results,'' he added.
Sales increased 48 percent year-on-year to about 4 trillion won, up from 2.7 trillion won a year ago, with net profit reaching 717 billion against 169 billion won over the same period on a consolidated basis.
LCD panel makers have been enjoying strong demand and stable prices even in the traditionally slow first quarter thanks to major sports events such as the Beijing Olympics, UEFA Euro 2008 tournament, consumers’ movement to replace bulky cathode-ray tubes and the faster policy shift to digital TVs in the United States.
``We expect our total shipments in the second quarter to rise 10-20 percent. However, average selling prices (ASP) will decline by a mid-single digit,’’ Jeong said. ASP is a key measurement of profitability.
Experts say the LCD market is likely to suffer oversupply at the end of the year, but cutbacks on investment will continue to limit capacity through the end of this year.