Lotte Chemical Corp. said Tuesday its second-quarter operating loss widened from a year earlier due largely to sluggish petrochemical demand.
The operating loss came to 77 billion won (US$58.5 million) in the April-June period, compared with the 59.5 billion-won loss a year earlier, the chemical unit of South Korean retail giant Lotte Group said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue fell 5.9 percent to 5 trillion won. It reported a net loss of 140.3 billion won, swinging from a net profit of 36.2 billion won a year earlier.
The loss was 348.8 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Faltering demand for petrochemical products, coupled with falling oil prices, weighed on the bottom line, Lotte Chemical said.
Lotte Chemical produces basic chemicals, such as polyethylene and ethylene, that are used in making plastics and industrial chemicals widely used in construction, the automotive sector and others.
The second-quarter earnings included the 1.5 billion-won operating loss registered by its new copper foil-making subsidiary, Lotte Energy Materials Corp., launched in March following its takeover by Lotte Chemical.
Lotte Energy Materials booked 198.2 billion won in revenue, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier.
Lotte Chemical is pushing to make inroads into green technologies, with a focus on secondary battery materials, as its new growth driver.
The company said in May it expects to generate at least 7 trillion won in annual revenue from its secondary battery components business by 2030.
Shares in Lotte Chemical fell 1.67 percent to 153,500 won on the main Seoul bourse Tuesday, compared with the broader KOSPI's 0.26 percent decline. The earnings results were released after the market closed.
Source: Yonhap News Agency