By Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s LG Display Co Ltd on Wednesday reported a 93% plunge in first-quarter profit, far below estimates as pandemic-driven demand for TVs, smartphones and laptops dropped off, causing sharp declines in panel prices.
Operating profit at the Apple Inc supplier came in at 38 billion won ($30 million) for the January-March period, down from 523 billion won a year earlier.
It was the lowest quarterly operating profit since the second quarter of 2020 and below a Refinitiv SmartEstimate of 182 billion won drawn from nine analysts.
First-quarter revenue fell 6% to 6.5 trillion won, the company said.
In addition to shrinking demand and price declines, unexpected supply chain problems caused by China’s COVID lockdowns affected panel production and shipments, the company said in a statement.
During the period, prices of 55-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for TV sets fell 16% from the previous quarter to their lowest since the second quarter of 2020, according to data from TrendForce’s WitsView.
Prices of LCD panels for notebooks and monitors also fell by around 7% to 11% during the first quarter, WitsView data showed.
Analysts expect prices to drop further in the current quarter as China’s COVID-19 lockdowns lower demand for devices.
($1 = 1,263.0100 won)
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Jamie Freed)
