LG Display News

LG Display sees quarterly profit slide 99% (27

April 2016)
A slump in display panel prices has contributed to a 99 per cent year-on-year fall in first
quarter net profit at LG Display, the South Korean maker of screens for Apples iPhones.
However, the numbers LG Displays weakest quarterly earnings in four years were not as
bad as analysts had forecast, in spite of panel prices being dented by weak technology demand
and oversupply.

The South Korean company on Wednesday posted a 99.8 per cent drop in first-quarter net
profit to Won1.2bn ($1m) down from a Won475.8bn profit in the same period a year earlier.
Sales in the first three months of 2016 fell 14.7 per cent year-on-year to Won5.9bn.
Operating profit of Won39.5bn was the weakest since the first quarter of 2012, but overshot
Thomson Reuters analysts consensus forecasts for a Won78bn loss.
The worlds biggest liquid crystal display maker by sales has warned of the tough business
environment as oversupply persists due to heavy investments by Chinese LCD makers.
LG Display forecast its second-quarter panel shipments to increase by a mid-single digit
percentage from the previous quarter. Panel prices are expected to stabilise due to global
sports events and an increase in new product shipments, said Don Kim, chief financial
officer.
Panel prices have fallen an average of 7 per cent each month over the past year, before having
stemmed the slide to 3 per cent in March, according to market researcher Witsview.
Kim Young-Woo at SK Securities said LG Display was also benefiting from the woes of rival
Samsung Display, which he said was struggling to ramp up TV panel production due to
problems with adopting its new processing technology. He estimated that Samsung Display
suffered Won300bn of operating losses in the January-March period.
LGs inventories are at a healthy level at the moment but tight supply for large TV panels
would not last long as Samsung Display is expected to normalise its production by the end of
June, said Mr Kim.

TrendForce, another market researcher, said that orders for more profitable large TV panels
would increase later in the year, buoyed by Chinas Labour Day sales and big sporting events
such as the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
However, analysts are sceptical of LG Displays longer-term prospects, as the company could
lose out to Samsung in supplying panels to Apple.
Samsung Display is in talks with Apple to be the exclusive supplier of displays for the next
iPhone models scheduled for release next year, according to industry watchers.
Local media have reported that Samsung is expanding its capacity to supply Apple with OLED
(organic light-emitting diode) screens, which are thinner, brighter and less power-consuming.
Samsung is the industry leader in small-size OLED screens used for smartphones, while LG
Display is leading the display technology in large-size TV panels. LG Display is likely to be
left empty-handed next year in terms of OLED supply for Apples premium phones as it has
no capacity for small-size OLED production, said Mr Kim.
LG Display shares fell 2.3 per cent to Won25,300 by midday on Wednesday, underperforming
a 0.2 per cent fall in the broader market.

SKGC News
APIC 16': S Koreas SKGC to shut SM in Nov for maintenance
20 May 2016 06:01 Source:ICIS News
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--South Korea's SK Global Chemical plans to shut its 450,000
tonnes/yearstyrene monomer (SM) plant in Ulsan in November for maintenance, a company
source said on Friday.
The maintenance is scheduled for 1 month, the source said at the sidelines of the 16th Asian
Petrochemical Industry Conference in Singapore being held on 19-20 May.
The company's other 350,000 tonne/year SM plant at the same location remains idle with no
immediate plans of restart.
Other SM producers in S Korea includes LG Chem, Lotte Chemical and Hanwha Total
Petrochemical.

Petrochemical firms restrategize for expected market changes

2016/05/09 09:31
SEOUL, May 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's petrochemical firms, basking in outstanding profits
last year, are restrategizing to make sure they can sustain the earnings and be ready for
future market changes, industry watchers said Monday.
The surprise earnings of 2015 were driven heavily by the wide profit margin -- low oil prices
pushing down the cost of raw materials but product prices not being marked down. Local
firms, watchers say, are well aware that such ideal conditions may soon change and are
setting up safety nets.
The leading petrochemical companies have been continuing their profit march this year. Lotte
Chemical logged 473.6 billion won (US$409.8 million) in operating profit in the first quarter, a
166.1 percent leap from the same quarter of 2015. LG Chem's operating profit for the first
quarter was 457.7 billion won, up 26.5 percent from the same period last year.
SK Innovation, South Korea's top refiner, made 844.8 billion won in operating profit in the first
quarter, helped by its chemical unit, SK Global Chemical, which pitched in 224.3 billion won.
A petrochemical plant in Ulsan (Yonhap file photo)
These companies have had the best of both worlds, industry watchers note, as low oil prices
kept the prices of naphtha, a key raw material, in check, while the prices of the final products
remained unchanged. Oil prices, however, have recently crept up to the $40 level a barrel,
and the U.S. is resuming shale gas exploration, raising the specter of price-competitive
products using ethane cracking technology hitting the market. China's drive to convert coal
into olefins could also thwart the current market conditions, as well as India putting its
ethylene production facilities into operation in the latter half of this year, watchers say.
New strategies mostly aim to grow out of the conventional ethylene-based products to more
value-boosted ones.
LG Chem has turned to bio business, acquiring Dongbu Farm Hannong, the country's No. 1
crop protection and seed producer, last month. In 2014, it took over NanoH2O, a U.S. startup
with technology for cleaning water.
Lotte Chemical, which has the highest proportion of products based on ethylene, has entered
the market for high-value synthetic resin after buying Samsung Group's chemical units. In
obtaining raw materials, the company built a gas chemical complex in Uzbekistan last year
and is constructing a shale gas-based ethane cracking center in the U.S. jointly with Axiall
Corp.
SK Global Chemical last year formed a partnership with Saudi Basic Industries Corp.
(SABIC), one of the world's largest petrochemicals group, to start a global nexlene business.
It already has a naphtha cracker center in China, established in a joint venture with China's
state-run refiner Sinopec Corp. in 2014. The joint venture recorded an operating profit of more
than 400 billion won last year, outdoing SK Global Chemical.

Chung Chul-khil, CEO of SK Innovation, in recent remarks named three key points to
surviving in the market -- obtaining cheap raw material, getting into important markets and
having core technologies.
"The cheap raw materials are in the Middle East, the big markets are in China and the U.S.,
and important technologies are in European companies," Chung said. "If we can secure one
or two of these factors, we will become competitive and become able to create growth and
value."

Hyundai Development Company News

6 April 2016
Hyundai Development in search of targets - report (translated)
Hyundai Development Company E&C (KRX:012630), a South Korean construction company,
has been in search of takeover targets, the Bell reported. Based on its plentiful cash reserves
from operations last year, the company is seeking targets that can create synergy with the
company. Hyundai Development saw cash influx of KRW 931.3bn (USD 806.7m) last year,
double over the previous year, the news report noted. On a consolidated basis, the company
booked record high cash inflow of KRW 1.0284tn. It plans to explore new business
opportunities this year. Duty-free shops and logistics firms could be potential targets, the
report said. No prospective target was mentioned in the report. Link to report
Hyundai Development Company Wins Bridge Construction Deal in Vietnam
23 December 2015 - 10:00am
Marie Kim
Hyundai Development Company (HDC) has won a contract to build a bridge in
Vietnam, succeeding in landing its first overseas business deal this year. It is also the
third and largest project that it has won after it resumed overseas operations last year
after 23 years of focusing on the domestic market.
The Hung Ha Bridge Construction Project, won by HDC from Project Management
Unit No. 1 under the Ministry of Transport in Vietnam on Dec. 21 (Korean time),
consists of constructing a 2.1-kilometer bridge and another 4.1-kilometer four-lane
road linking Hung Yen and Ha Nam. The US$85.4 million (92.7 billion won)
construction will take 36 months after a groundbreaking ceremony in February next
year.
Domestic construction companies fiercely competed to obtain the Hung Ha Bridge
Construction project, attracting attention. Five large domestic builders, including HDC,
made a bid and the evaluation process took about a month after bidding closed on Nov.
5.
The fierce competition is due to its stable profitability. The Hung Ha Bridge
Construction Project is funded by the Export-Import Bank of Korea by its Economic
Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). Therefore, it can be stably financed and
become a bridgehead to win other infrastructure projects in the future, based on the

results. In fact, the HDC is about to close a new road construction deal soon, and it is
expected to win two contracts, including the Hung Ha Bridge Construction project,
worth 115 billion won (US$98.21 million), in Vietnam alone.