SKC二季度亏损收窄且化学业务恢复，但仍未扭亏

SKC (011790.KS) sharply narrowed its losses in the second quarter this year, driven by improvement in its chemical business.
SKC reported a consolidated operating loss of 14.4 billion won in the second quarter, an improvement from a 68.5 billion won loss in the same period last year, the company said on the 27th. Revenue rose 38.3 percent to 655.3 billion won.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a measure of cash-generating capacity, increased about threefold from the previous quarter to 29.1 billion won, marking a second consecutive quarter in the black. SKC said it also significantly improved its financial structure, including net borrowings and its debt ratio, after completing a 1.1647 trillion won rights offering during the quarter.
By segment, the chemical business led the overall earnings recovery. The chemical business posted revenue of 317.8 billion won and operating profit of 30.5 billion won, up from the previous quarter. While production and sales volumes declined amid uncertainty in the global supply chain, higher prices for key products such as propylene glycol (PG) and propylene oxide (PO) drove revenue. Expanded sales of high-value-added products, cost improvements, and process efficiency also contributed.
The copper foil business recorded revenue of 254 billion won, its highest quarterly revenue ever. With the share of North American sales expanding to 67 percent, copper foil sales for energy storage systems (ESS) and electric vehicles (EV) rose 76 percent and 28 percent, respectively. SKC plans to launch a Malaysia-centered production and sales system in full in the second half, further enhancing cost improvement effects.
The semiconductor materials business posted revenue of 72.9 billion won and operating profit of 21.3 billion won. Revenue from test sockets for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers grew 66 percent year-on-year, leading growth. In the second half, the company plans to expand production capacity based on the expansion of its first plant in Vietnam.
For the glass substrate business, SKC launched a two-track strategy pursuing the simultaneous commercialization of embedding and non-embedding products. It began initial reliability testing of embedding products, while also supplying non-embedding prototypes for next-generation network chips to a U.S. telecommunications company, entering a new project. In the second half, the company plans to complete reliability testing of embedding products and then prepare a proof of concept (PoC) for non-embedding products.
"In the second quarter, we were able to lay the foundation for an earnings recovery as profitability improved across all businesses and the results of new businesses became visible," an SKC official said. "In the second half, we will continue to improve profitability by enhancing operational efficiency, while strengthening the technological competitiveness of our new businesses to further solidify our mid- to long-term growth base."