SK Chemicals Reports Operating Profit of 19.7 Billion KRW, Down 4%... "Holding Up Well Amid Recession"

Maintaining High-Value Chemical Product Portfolio
Impact of Increased Sales from Introduced Pharmaceutical Drugs

SK Chemicals announced on the 4th that it minimized the impact of the global market downturn by maintaining a sales strategy focused on high value-added products in the second quarter of this year.

SK Chemicals recorded sales of 309 billion KRW and an operating profit of 19.7 billion KRW on a separate basis in the second quarter of this year. Compared to the same period last year, sales decreased by 5.1% and operating profit decreased by 4.1%.

SK Chemicals explained, "Despite the difficult business environment due to the global economic recession, we defended our performance by implementing a high value-added product portfolio in the copolyester business division and maintaining favorable sales of introduced drugs in the pharmaceutical sector."

Sales in the Green Chemical business division for the second quarter were 211.6 billion KRW, down 9.7% year-on-year, and operating profit was 30.8 billion KRW, down 7.2%. Although sales and operating profit declined due to slow improvement in global consumer sentiment, the impact of the downturn was minimized through a sales strategy focused on high value-added copolyester products.

SK Chemicals Reports Operating Profit of 19.7 Billion KRW, Down 4%... "Holding Up Well Amid Recession"

SK Chemicals Headquarters, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province [Photo by SK Chemicals]

Pharmaceutical business sales in the Life Science division for the second quarter were 86.3 billion KRW, with an operating profit of 5 billion KRW. Sales increased by 11.8% compared to the same period last year due to favorable sales of newly introduced products to expand the portfolio. Operating profit decreased by 35.7% due to price reductions and increased selling and administrative expenses.

Kim Ki-dong, Head of Management Support at SK Chemicals, stated, “Although the business environment remains highly uncertain, we will improve performance based on a solid portfolio centered on high value-added products and continue global expansion of new businesses such as circular recycling.”

Due to the performance impact of its subsidiary SK Bioscience, consolidated sales were 371.3 billion KRW with an operating loss of 13.8 billion KRW. Earlier, SK Bioscience announced on the 28th of last month that its consolidated second-quarter sales were 26.5 billion KRW with an operating loss of 35.3 billion KRW on a preliminary basis.