By Kim Yoo-chul
LG Chem, the world's biggest supplier of batteries to be used in electric vehicles, said Monday that its battery business improved last year thanks to increasing demand for battery applications.
Its battery division, headed by President Kwon Young-soo, reported 2.85 trillion won in sales for 2014, up 10.5 percent from the previous year, while the annual operating profit came with 64.9 billion won, up 100.9 percent, year-on-year.
The battery division is the only winner among two others which ended last year with profit.
“Our battery business is seeing gradual recovery as we've been receiving more calls from major carmakers in China and those in developed countries to supply batteries for electric vehicles,” C.S. Song, head of LG Chem's public relations office, said in the statement.
LG supplies its in-house battery packs to more than 25 global carmakers including General Motors and Ford. It is building a mega battery plant in the southern Chinese city of Nanjing with two Chinese companies. LG already runs battery plants in Holland, Mich., in the U.S. and Ochang, a local provincial city.
The company, which is also the nation's top chemical firm, said its 2014 annual sales came to 22.57 trillion won, a marginal decrease of 2.4 percent from a year ago, while the combined operating profit last year was 1.3 trillion won, a drop of 24.8 percent.
“A falling oil price hit us. However, our other businesses, such as batteries, remained competitive,” said Song.
By divisions, its chemical division generated 17 trillion won in yearly sales. Operating profit was 1.11 trillion won. This represented a drop of 2 percent and 16.1 percent from a year earlier, respectively.
The information materials division reported 2.85 trillion won in sales with the annual operating profit coming in at 158 billion won, a decrease of 11.3 percent and 58.3 percent, respectively.
LG Chem said it aims to create 22.48 trillion won in sales for this year. But the company has decided to increase investment in key facilities by 13.3 percent to 1.79 trillion won.
“LG Chem will boost the output of synthetic rubbers, materials for OLED lightening and car batteries in China,” it said.