Lotte Chemical said on Feb. 4 that last year's sales on a consolidation basis were 18.483 trillion won, down 7.1% from a year earlier. Operating loss for the same period was 943.5 billion won, and net loss was 2.49 trillion won, widening the deficit.
Fourth-quarter sales were 4.7099 trillion won, down 1.7% from a year earlier, and operating loss was 433.9 billion won, up 85.7%.
Lotte Chemical has been proactively pushing to restructure Korea's commodity petrochemical business since last year, focusing on securing optimal facility utilization rates and rationalizing operations. It is also improving financial soundness by disposing of noncore assets.
A Lotte Chemical official said, "This year, we plan to reduce the share of the commodity petrochemical business and pursue high-performance materials and eco-friendly energy businesses as future growth drivers."
It plans to produce high value-added product lines at the YulChon compounding plant, which is slated for completion this year. It will build a cathode foil plant in the United States to push battery materials businesses such as circuit boards for artificial intelligence (AI) and functional copper foil products. It also plans to generate results in the eco-friendly energy business by operating the Ulsan Hydrogen Fuel Cell power plant.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the basic materials institutional sector posted sales of 3.3431 trillion won and an operating loss of 395.7 billion won. Profitability deteriorated due to the start-up of Lotte Chemical Indonesia (LCI) and the seasonal off-season.
The advanced materials business posted sales of 929.5 billion won and operating profit of 22.1 billion won. Sales volume fell due to the seasonal off-season and year-end inventory adjustments by client companies. For the first quarter of this year, it projected improved profitability on the back of the end of year-end inventory adjustments and a recovery in demand from downstream industries.
During the same period, Lotte Fine Chemical posted sales of 439.1 billion won and operating profit of 19.3 billion won. Profitability worsened as sales volumes fell due to weak demand in downstream industries. It expected flat results in the first quarter due to the seasonal off-season.
Lotte Energy Materials posted sales of 170.9 billion won and an operating loss of 33.8 billion won. Despite a decline in sales volume due to sluggish demand in the global electric vehicle (EV) market, results improved thanks to expanded sales of non-EV product lines such as ESS and circuit foil. For the first quarter of this year, it expected improved results through product portfolio diversification.
Meanwhile, Lotte Chemical decided on a settlement of account cash dividends of 500 won per common share to enhance shareholder value. The final dividend plan will be confirmed at the regular shareholders meeting in March.