LG Chem, the nation’s leading chemical company, on Wednesday logged record-high quarterly sales of 5.69 trillion won ($5.3 billion) for the second quarter of this year to record a 13.4-percent increase from last year.

Operating profit and net profit, however, declined on the back of sluggish market conditions and soaring material costs, the company said.

Operating profit stood at 775.4 billion won, falling 6.3 percent from the same period last year, while net profit slipped 3.3 percent on-year to 624.5 billion won.

LG Chem on Wednesday closed at 493,500 won, up 7,000 won or 1.44 percent from the previous day.

Compared to the first quarter, sales rose 3.8 percent, while operating profit and net profit fell 7.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

Company officials also said weak demand for IT products, which usually experience a dip during the summer season, was responsible for the fall in operating and net profit.

Broken down, LG Chem’s petrochemicals business appeared responsible for most of the sales. The division logged revenues of 4.34 trillion won and operating profit of 642.2 billion won. The information materials division registered sales of 1.33 trillion won and an operating profit of 139 billion won.

In the first quarter, LG Chem had registered record quarterly earnings. Operating profit surged 28 percent to 835.3 billion won, while net profit came in at 656.6 billion won after rising 26.8 percent.

Much of the rise was fueled by improvements in the company’s petrochemical’s business, officials said.

Hana Financial profits up

Hana Financial Group reported a net profit of 482.6 billion won ($450 million) during the second quarter, up 103.6 billion won from a quarter earlier.

The nation’s fourth-largest financial group on Wednesday evaluated its performance as progress, attributing the profit increase to improvement in financial soundness thanks to the eased burden on accumulating loan loss reserves.

The group also said its total assets climbed by 4.2 trillion won to 211 trillion won on a quarter-to-quarter basis, buoyed by growth in loans to financially healthy customers.

Its flagship Hana Bank posted 476.9 billion won in net profits, up 82.2 billion won from a quarter before.

The banking unit saw the ratio of loan delinquency and substandard loans fall to 0.49 percent and 1.22 percent, respectively.

The group said Hana Bank has pushed ahead with continues write-offs of bad loans and aggressive management of overdue lending.

By Kim Ji-hyun and Kim Yon-se
(jemmie@heraldcorp.com), (kys@heraldcorp.com)