LG Display logs 3rd straight quarterly operating loss

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- LG Display Co., the world's second-largest maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, reported Thursday a third straight quarterly operating loss for the second quarter as consumers held back TV purchases on an uncertain economic outlook. The operating loss amounted to 48.3 billion won (US$45.8 million) in the April-June period, compared with a 725.9 billion won profit one year earlier, LG Display said in a regulatory filing. The figure, however, narrowed from a 79.8 billion won loss in the previous quarter. The panel maker was expected to post a 34.8 billion won operating loss, according to analysts polled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. Sales fell 6 percent on-year to 6.05 trillion won while its net income reached 21.3 billion won, compared with a 96.2 billion won net loss one year ago. LG Display, along with its bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co., has been struggling with price erosions in LCD panels as economic uncertainties delayed the revival of the TV industry. Samsung Electronics sacked its LCD president and merged the display business with its semiconductor business in a bid to engineer a turnaround. In June, DisplaySearch, a market research firm, cut its forecast of the global LCD TV market for this year to 210.49 million units from an earlier estimate of 216.82 million units. Earlier this year, LG Display introduced a 3-D display technology called film patterned retarder (FPR) to spur fresh demand for 3-D TV, but market response was tepid. Analysts at Shinhan Investment Corp. said the public debt crisis in Europe and the downturn in the U.S. real estate market are postponing the revival in TV demand. As TV vendors, the most important clients for panel makers, are reducing panel stockpiles until they see certain signals of demand revival, the LCD panel sector has been battling the industry-wide downturn for nearly two years.