LG Electronics’ Whisen Tower air conditioner (Courtesy of LG)
South Korean tech giant LG Electronics Inc. is expected to log its record second-quarter revenue and operating profit thanks to robust sales of home appliances and automotive parts, according to the company’s preliminary report on Friday.
The company posted 1.2 trillion won ($869.3 million) in operating profit and 21.7 trillion won in revenue in the April-June period, up 61.2% and 8.5% on-year, respectively, the report said. The earnings, exceeding consensus estimates, are the highest ever in the company’s second-quarter surplus and sales.
It is the first time the company has logged more than 1 trillion won in quarterly operating profit for two quarters in a row since its inception in 1958.
The company has also exceeded 1 trillion won in a second-quarter profit for the first time as it has achieved such high surplus for the January-March periods, except for the third quarter in 2020 when it earned 1.1 trillion won in profits.
(Graphics by Dongbeom Yun)
It said that the strong earnings came as LG has driven balanced growth of its core business, or home appliance, and business-to-business (B2B) products and services such as car components and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, the company’s future growth engines.
LG said the revenue from home appliances was driven by air conditioners, including artificial intelligence-powered Whisen Tower of which sales in June soared more than 80% from a year earlier.
Its AI-backed air conditioners are more energy efficient, automatically remove dust on filters and moisture inside the machine and adjust operations depending on the room temperature.
The company also expands B2B sales of premium automotive components, such as electric vehicle powertrains and LG Alphaware for software-defined vehicles (SDVs), of which capabilities are fundamentally updated with software rather than hardware.
The company’s home entertainment business, which includes organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs and soundbars, suffered a rise in liquid-crystal display (LCD) costs and is gradually recovering in the European premium TV market.
LG will also use AI technology for commercial displays such as digital signage and video walls as well as boost sales of electronic whiteboard solutions for digital classrooms.
By Jeong-Soo Hwang
hjs@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.
