Seoul, South Korea — LG.Philips LCD today reported a dramatically higher net profit and sales performance, thanks to higher panel prices, for its third quarter that ended Sept. 28.
An un-audited earnings report based on consolidated Korean GAAP showed net income was $573 million compared to a loss of $351 million in the third quarter of last year. Operating profit was $758 million vs. a loss of $418 million for the prior year’s third quarter. Sales rose 43 percent to $4.33 billion from the prior year’s $3.03 billion.
Young Soo Kwon, CEO of LG.Philips LCD, said, “We are pleased with our financial performance this quarter, underscored by better than expected profit levels. These strong results reflect our focus on value based management including our continued diligence on reducing costs … developing marketing initiatives focused on our customer base, and managing appropriate inventory levels given both the current and projected market demand.”
He added, “Additionally, better than anticipated cost savings this quarter of 9 percent in terms of USD came as a result of our product development effort and effectively managing the supply chain. We are well on our way to achieving this year’s guided cost reduction of approximately 30 percent.”
Kwon also reported that its board approved an additional investment in a Gen 8 manufacturing plant with the target ramp-up in the first half of 2009.
The company reported it shipped a total of 3.1 million square meters of net display area in the third quarter of 2007, an increase of 11 percent quarter-on-quarter. The average selling price per square meter of net display area shipped was $1,364, which was an increase of about 7 percent compared to the average of the second quarter of 2007. The ending average selling price per square meter was $1,369, an increase of about 4 percent compared to the end of the second quarter of 2007.
For the third quarter of 2007, the cost of goods sold per square meter of net display area shipped decreased 9 percent to $1,071 from the second quarter of 2007.
Total production input capacity on an area basis increased about 17 percent sequentially in the third quarter and was largely due to increase of production, mainly in P7 facility.
