April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung SDI announced on Jan. 25 its fourth-quarter net earnings increased 10.8 percent on-year on strong demand for its lithium-ion batteries used in cordless devices and electric vehicles. 

A visitor takes a look at a home ESS battery module at Samsung SDI's booth at the Electrical Energy Storage Europe 2018 in Munich, Germany on Wednesady.  Samsung SDI

In a regulatory briefing, the battery-making unit of Samsung Electronics said its income stood at 266 billion won (US$237.1 million) for three months until December, compared with 240 billion won the previous year.

Its sales jumped 33.8 percent on-year to 2.47 trillion won. The operating profit jumped 109.7 percent to 248.7 billion won.

By sector, sales for its battery division soared 42.6 percent on-year to 1.87 trillion won in the last three months of 2018, led by strong demand for lithium-ion batteries for EVs and small electronic devices. Sales of electronic materials for memory chips and displays rose 12.2 percent to 597.2 billion won over the period, it noted.

For the whole of 2018, Korea's No. 2 battery maker posted 9.1 trillion won in sales, marking a 44.3 percent spike from a year earlier.

Its annual operating profit skyrocketed 511.56 percent on-year to 715 billion won, led by upbeat demand for lithium-ion batteries used in EVs and mobile devices.

Samsung SDI products include small-sized lithium-ion batteries used in cordless household devices and battery packs used in BMW's EVs, including the i3 and i8.

By Son Ji-hyoung and newswires (consnow@heraldcorp.com)