POSCO FUTURE M posted an operating profit of 66.7 billion won in the third quarter of this year, up 4,775% from a year earlier. Energy materials, including cathode materials, drove the earnings growth.
Revenue for the same period fell 5.2% to 874.8 billion won, and net profit came in at a surplus of 46.4 billion won. POSCO FUTURE M's quarterly operating profit recorded an operating loss of 41.3 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year, then stayed in the black for three straight quarters starting in the first quarter of this year.
This was the result of simultaneous increases in third-quarter revenue and operating profit in the core energy materials business unit. Sales of cathode materials using precursors produced at the Gwangyang plant rose in both the United States and Europe.
POSCO FUTURE M completed a precursor plant in Gwangyang this year with an annual capacity of 45,000 tons and began mass production. There had been projections that profitability would improve starting in the second half, when the Gwangyang plant entered full-scale mass production.
However, anode materials saw a slight decline in revenue as sales to domestic clients decreased. The basic materials business maintained revenue at the previous quarter's level, but operating profit edged down as margins for chemical products fell partly due to oil price fluctuations.