LG Electronics achieved record-high sales in the third quarter.
LG Electronics announced on October 12 that it announced its interim results for the third quarter and that its sales in the third quarter of this year stood at 18.78 trillion won. This is an increase of 22.0% compared to the same period last year, exceeding the record high sales of 17.81 trillion won in the first quarter of this year.
The company's main business, home appliance and TV business, continued to brisk, setting a record for the highest sales in six months. In particular, the home appliance sector is expected to dominate the competition with Whirlpool in the US for three consecutive quarters.
The provisional operating profit for the third quarter was estimated at KRW 540.7 billion won. Initially, the forecast was that the operating profit would exceed KRW 1 trillion won, but the size decreased as the additional provision of KRW 480 billion won related to the GM Bolt EV recall was reflected.
The H&A headquarters, which is in charge of home appliances, is estimated to have generated nearly 7 trillion won in sales. The space interior home appliance "LG Object Collection", which has been steadily increasing the proportion of sales since the beginning of this year, seems to have led the sales growth.
As the time spent at home increases due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is analyzed that the number of package purchases for purchasing three or more home appliances at the same time has increased.
As the rainy season ended early this year and the heat wave continued, purchases of air conditioners also surged. According to LG Electronics, air conditioners produced in the first half of this year were 7,237,000 units, and considering the production capacity was 5.61 million units, the average utilization rate was 128.9%.
The industry predicted that the sales of the H&A headquarters would lead the competition with Whirlpool in the third quarter, following the first and second quarters. Whirlpool's third quarter sales forecast is $5.78 billion (KRW 6.7 trillion won).
In the first half of this year, LG Electronics recorded about KRW 13.5 trillion won in sales, beating Whirlpool, which recorded KRW 11.9 trillion won, by KRW 1.6 trillion won.
The HE headquarters, which is in charge of the TV business, is expected to generate KRW 4 trillion won in sales in the third quarter as OLED TV sales increase. Omdia, a market research firm, forecasted OLED TV shipments to be 5.8 million units at the beginning of this year, but raised it to 6.5 million units at the end of last month.
The industry predicted that LG Electronics would record annual sales of KRW 70 trillion won this year if the brisk business in its main businesses such as home appliances and TVs continues until the end of this year.
