SKC narrows second-quarter loss by 79% on strong copper foil sales

SKC posted second-quarter sales of 645.4 billion won ($440 million) and an operating loss of 14.4 billion won, the company announced Monday. Sales rose 38.3 percent from a year earlier, while the operating loss narrowed by 79 percent over the same period.

EBITDA, a measure of cash generation, reached 29.1 billion won — roughly three times the previous quarter's level. The company also completed a rights offering worth 1.16 trillion won, sharply reducing its net debt and debt ratio.

The earnings improvement was driven largely by a recovery in profitability at the chemicals business, which recorded sales of 317.8 billion won and operating profit of 30.5 billion won. Although production and sales volumes declined amid global supply chain uncertainty, higher prices for propylene glycol and propylene oxide lifted results.

The copper foil business posted quarterly sales of 254 billion won, its highest ever on a quarterly basis. With North America accounting for 67 percent of sales, shipments of copper foil for ESS and electric vehicles rose 76 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

The semiconductor materials business generated sales of 72.9 billion won and operating profit of 21.3 billion won. Sales of test sockets for AI data centers climbed 66 percent year-on-year, sustaining the segment's growth momentum. In the second half, SKC plans to expand production capacity by leveraging the scale-up of its first factory in Vietnam and respond actively to growing customer demand.

The glass substrate business moved into full execution of a two-track strategy to commercialize both embedding and non-embedding products simultaneously. The company began initial reliability testing on the embedding product and supplied non-embedding prototypes for next-generation network semiconductors to a US telecommunications company. SKC aims to complete reliability testing on the embedding product in the second half and advance proof-of-concept work on the non-embedding product on schedule.

"In the second quarter, profitability improved across all businesses and our new ventures began to show tangible results, laying the groundwork for an earnings recovery," an SKC official said. "In the second half, we will continue to improve profitability by raising operational efficiency while strengthening the technological competitiveness of our new businesses to further solidify our medium- and long-term growth foundation."