SKC on Tuesday announced an earnings surprise for the third quarter of this year, recording a revenue of 723.7 billion won ($637.1 million) and an operating profit of 55.3 billion won, the largest-ever operating profit since 2015.

According to the chemical and tech material producing unit under South Korean conglomerate SK Group, it saw a 19.7 percent and a 44 percent jump in revenue and operating profit on-year, respectively, thanks to its business model centered on mobility and semiconductor industries. However, its net income witnessed a decline of 40.7 percent to 13.4 billion won in the same period.

SKC’s wholly-owned subsidiary SK Nexilis, which manufactures copper foils for electric vehicle batteries, enjoyed 103.1 billion won in revenue, breaching a 100-billion-won mark for the first time. As for operating profit, it registered 15.2 billion won.

“The revenue is expected to improve further in the fourth quarter thanks to favorable business conditions such as growing demand for EVs,” an SKC official said.

SK Picglobal, SKC’s joint venture that conducts chemical business, logged 184.9 billion won and 25.3 billion won in revenue and operating profit, respectively. The recovery of global auto industry drove up the demand for propylene oxide, while the coronavirus outbreak gave boost to the sales of propylene glycol for hygiene products.

Meanwhile, SKC’s industrial materials division, which produces films, continued its growth by recording 273.4 billion won and 16.9 billion won in revenue and operating profit as the prolonged pandemic gave rise to the sales of films for displays of TVs and laptops.

For its semiconductor materials division, SKC posted 104.3 billion won and 6.3 billion won in revenue and operating profit and the company aims to maintain the momentum by completing its second CMP pad factory in the fourth quarter, which would double its production capacity of the product.

Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)