사진 확대
SK Innovation and POSCO Holdings Inc. posted strong results in the second quarter of this year. Although their core refining and steel businesses were sluggish, battery, lithium and other non-core and new businesses drove earnings.
SK Innovation said on the 30th that it posted sales of 29.1572 trillion won and operating profit of 3.4873 trillion won in the second quarter. The company swung to a profit from an operating loss of about 400 billion won in the same period last year.
Analysts said the strong operating profit was largely driven by improved performance in the lubricants and battery divisions. SK Enmove’s operating profit in the second quarter rose by 503.4 billion won from the previous quarter to 691.9 billion won. Earnings increased as margins in the lubricant base oil business widened amid the impact of the Middle East war. The refining business also remained solid, supported by the lag effect during the oil price upswing and inventory valuation gains.
POSCO Group also delivered strong results, despite weakness in its core steel business, thanks to strong performance in non-steel segments such as infrastructure and battery materials. The group’s ‘triple core’ strategy, led by Chairman Chang In-hwa and centered on steel as an industrial resource, lithium and materials as strategic resources, and liquefied natural gas as an energy resource, is now said to be on track.
POSCO Holdings Inc., the group’s holding company, disclosed on the day that it recorded sales of 19.259 trillion won and operating profit of 819 billion won in the second quarter. Compared with the same period last year, sales rose 9.7 percent and operating profit increased 34.9 percent. The main driver of the improved results was the infrastructure segment, including POSCO International and POSCO E&C. Operating profit in the infrastructure division more than doubled year on year to 493 billion won from 237 billion won. The gain was driven by POSCO International’s strong performance in gas fields in Myanmar and Australia, as well as its palm oil business in Indonesia, which helped it post the highest quarterly operating profit in its history.
The battery materials segment, which is seen as a future growth engine for the group, also turned around. By contrast, the steel division, the group’s traditional core business, struggled amid stagnant demand and rising costs.
Samsung SDS said it posted consolidated sales of 3.7178 trillion won and operating profit of 231.8 billion won in the second quarter, supported by growth in its cloud and logistics businesses. Sales rose 5.9 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit increased 0.7 percent. The cloud division grew by double digits and led the results, while the company is also expanding its AI infrastructure and AI transformation (AX) businesses.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics said it recorded consolidated sales of 3.4572 trillion won and operating profit of 440.4 billion won in the second quarter. Sales rose 24 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit jumped 107 percent. The increase was driven by higher sales of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) for data center and automotive use, including AI servers and networks, as well as increased shipments of high-value-added semiconductor substrates to global big tech customers.
Reporters Jung Ji-seong, Lee Jin-han, and Park Min-gi
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.