LG Display turns Q1 profit as sales, prices gain

LG Display, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of liquid crystal displays used in flat screen televisions and other products, booked a profit in the first quarter from a loss last year as sales and prices rose.

LG Display earned 649 billion won ($585.5 million) in the three months ended March 31, it said Thursday in a regulatory filing. The company posted a net loss of 347 billion won a year earlier.

The first-quarter result was the company’s fourth straight quarterly net profit.

Sales during the quarter rose 66 percent to 5.88 trillion won from 3.54 trillion won a year earlier.

The company’s average selling price per square meter of display shipped, an industry benchmark, was $838 in the first quarter, or 25 percent higher than the $669 recorded in the same period last year, the company said in a release.

Seoul-based LG Display Co. also said that it shipped 6.16 million square meters of display area in the first quarter, up 64 percent from the same period last year.

LG Display also manufactures LCDs used in computer monitors, laptops and mobile phones. It competes with South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest manufacturer of LCDs.

Shares in LG Display, which released earnings results after the stock market closed, rose 0.5 percent to close at 43,950 won. The shares gained 87 percent in 2009.

Associated Press

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