SK Innovation Q3 net soars on high refining margins
SK Innovation’s battery plant in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province / Courtesy of SK Innovation
SK Innovation, Korea's leading refiner by sales, said Friday its third-quarter net profit more than quadrupled from a year earlier on high refining margins.
Net profit for the three months ended in September soared to 729.61 billion won ($550 million) from 175.16 billion won during the same period of last year, the company said in a statement.
"The quarterly bottomline got a boost from high refining margins driven by high oil prices and improved profits in the lubricant business division," a company spokesman said.
Operating profit more than doubled to 1.56 trillion won in the third quarter from 703.96 billion won a year ago. But sales fell 12 percent to 19.89 trillion won from 22.75 trillion won during the cited period.
From January to September, net income plunged 76 percent to 557.22 billion won from 2.37 trillion won in the period a year ago.
"In the second quarter (of this year), the company's refining margins fell sharply as Russia supplied a large amount of oil at low prices in the markets. It affected the net result for the nine-month period," the spokesman said.
Moreover, the net result was also affected by a base effect in which SK Innovation's refining margins skyrocketed in the first and second quarters of 2022 amid a lack of oil supply due to the Russia-Ukraine war, he said.
Operating profit fell 61 percent to 1.83 trillion won in the first nine months from 4.68 trillion won a year ago. Sales were down 2 percent to 57.76 trillion won from 58.92 trillion won. (Yonhap)