LG Electronics, the world’s No. 3 manufacturer of liquid-crystal display televisions, said today that its TV-making operations turned a second-quarter profit on an 86% surge in LCD sales.
LG’s digital display unit had an operating profit of 38 billion Korean won ($37.4 million), compared with a loss of 138 billion won ($135.8 million) a year earlier.
Division sales jumped 37% to 3.74 trillion won ($3.68 billion) and accounted for about 30% of the parent company’s revenue, up from 26% a year earlier.
The results are consistent with both NPD Group unit DisplaySearch’s 2008 projections and the earnings of LG Display, the No. 2 LCD panel maker that’s 38% owned by LG Electronics. DisplaySearch said last month that unit shipments of LCDs this year will jump 32% to about 105 million units. Meanwhile, LG Display said earlier this month that second-quarter earnings tripled from a year earlier.
LG Electronics sold 11% of the world’s LCDs during the first quarter, behind only Samsung and Sony and ahead of Sharp and Royal Philips Electronics. The top five brands accounted for 62% of the worldwide LCDs sold in the first quarter and 68% of the LCD revenue, according to DisplaySearch.
Last week, Philips, the world’s No. 5 liquid-crystal display television maker, said it took a second-quarter loss on its television operations from restructuring charges as it prepared to outsource its TV sales in North America to cut operating losses. TV revenue rose on demand from emerging markets and the Euro 2008 soccer tournament.
Samsung reports earnings later this week while Sony reports earnings next week.