Due to global economic uncertainty and US - China trade tensions, LG Display Co Ltd has notified of weaker panel prices in the year ahead. It has however posted a jump in quarterly profit, thanks to increasing sale of wearable screens.
The company claims that strong sales of high-end screens for smart watches has helped improve profitability, even as overall sales fell due to weakness in the television segment.
The surge in profit from wearable screens underlines the Apple Inc. supplier’s ongoing efforts to focus on high value-added products to fend off declining prices for large panels due to aggressive output from Chinese rivals.
Operating profit for October-December came in at 279 billion won ($249.7 million), from 44 billion won in the same period a year ago. Revenue fell 2.5 percent to 6.9 trillion won.
Operating profit was above a 132 billion won forecast of 10 analysts based on I/B/E/S Refinitiv data, but the company’s shares fell more than 4 percent following the result on concerns for panel prices.
LG Display has expected panel shipments to fall by a high-single-digit percentage in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter due to seasonally weak demand. Weaker global smartphone sales particularly in China have clouded the outlook for electronics makers including Apple, which said sales for the current quarter would most likely be lower than Wall Street expected.
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