LG Electronics hits record high Q3 sales, 49.6% decline in operating profit

LG Electronics hit a new high in quarterly sales in the third quarter, owing to the continued consumption in the consumer electronics sector under the pandemic, the company announced Thursday.

The tech giant, the largest home appliance provider in South Korea, posted 18.78 trillion won ($16.1 billion) in sales, the highest-ever in the firm’s history.

Compared to the same quarter last year, sales soared 22 percent.

But the Q3 operating profit stood at 540.7 billion won, a 49.6 percent decline, due to the loss from recalls of GM’s EV Bolt for which LG Electronics had to spend around 620 billion won to take responsibility for the defects in battery modules it assembled for the vehicles.

The home appliance and air solution business continued to lead LG’s earnings growth in the third quarter.

Of the 18 trillion won in sales, the home appliance unit accounted for 7.6 trillion won, up 14.7 percent from Q3 last year. The unit surpassed the 7 trillion won mark in quarterly sales as first among LG units. It generated an operating profit of 505.4 billion won.

Its overseas sales contributed the most to the sales growth.

In all three overseas markets, North America, Europe and Latin America, home appliance sales logged double-digit growths, the company said.

LG’s TV unit posted 4.18 trillion won in sales, up 13.9 percent from a year earlier. For the last four quarters in a row, the TV business kept raising over 4 trillion won in sales. The operating profit stood at 208.3 billion won.

(song@heraldcorp.com)