Sales Reach 505 Billion KRW... Both Refractory and Materials Businesses Increase
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO Chemical has achieved its highest quarterly sales ever.
POSCO Chemical announced on the 21st that its consolidated sales for the third quarter of this year reached 505 billion KRW, marking the highest quarterly sales in its history. Operating profit increased by 62.4% compared to the same period last year, reaching 31.5 billion KRW.
In the third quarter of this year, POSCO Chemical showed solid sales growth across all business sectors including energy materials, lime chemicals, and refractories, consecutively achieving record quarterly sales.
In the energy materials business, cathode materials recorded sales of 171.7 billion KRW, a 2.4% increase from the previous quarter, as the rise in raw material prices such as nickel was reflected in the selling price. Anode materials maintained sales at the same level as the previous quarter, with 42.7 billion KRW.
In the lime chemicals business, sales rose 12.9% from the previous quarter to 172.8 billion KRW due to increased selling prices of chemical products such as coal tar and creosote oil influenced by rising oil prices. The refractory business also posted sales of 104.8 billion KRW, up 1.2% from the previous quarter.
Subsidiary PMC Tech achieved sales of 42.5 billion KRW, a 23.5% increase from the previous quarter, with an operating profit margin of 23.5%, driven by higher product selling prices due to rising oil prices.
POSCO Chemical views securing stable raw materials and mass production capacity as key to business competitiveness amid the growth of the electric vehicle market and plans to focus more resources on investments to this end.
Accordingly, starting this year, the company is expanding its cathode material and precursor production plant with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons through a joint venture with China’s Huayou Cobalt, investing in Qingdao Zhongseok, a raw material company for flake graphite, and promoting pitch production, a coating material for anode materials. The POSCO Group is also advancing raw material and recycling businesses involving lithium, nickel, and graphite, which is expected to help strengthen cost competitiveness.
Additionally, POSCO Chemical plans to complete the construction of the artificial graphite anode material plant in Pohang by December this year without delay and continue to expand global production capacity for cathode and anode materials in Korea, the United States, China, and Europe.
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