Seoul, July 30 (IANS) LG Energy Solution Ltd (LGES), South Korea’s leading battery maker, said on Thursday it swung to a net loss in the second quarter from a year earlier amid a prolonged slowdown in the electric vehicle (EV) market.
In the three months that ended in June, LGES posted a net loss of 328.6 billion won (US$228.4 million), compared with a net profit of 90.6 billion won in the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
“Sluggish EV sales in the North American market and the suspension of operations at U.S. joint venture plants since early this year weighed on the quarterly results,” a company official said, reports Yonhap news agency.
Ultium Cells LLC, the battery joint venture between LGES and General Motors Co., temporarily suspended operations at its first plant in Ohio and its second plant in Tennessee in January due to slowing demand.
Operating profit plunged 77 percent to 113.3 billion won in the second quarter from 492.1 billion won a year earlier.
The operating profit was 43.8 percent below the average estimate compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data arm of Yonhap News Agency. A consensus estimate for net profit was not available.
Sales, on the other hand, rose 24.8 percent to 7.56 trillion won from 6.06 trillion won over the same period.
LGES received a tax credit of 241 billion won under the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (AMPC) program of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, the company said.
Excluding the AMPC, the company posted an operating loss of 127.7 billion won in the second quarter.
For the first six months of 2026, the company swung to a net loss of 1.27 trillion won from a net profit of 317.2 billion won a year earlier.
It also posted an operating loss of 94.5 billion won, compared with an operating profit of 866.8 billion won in the same period last year. Sales rose 10.5 percent to 14.1 trillion won from 12.7 trillion won.
—IANS
na/