EcoPro BM said on Tuesday its operating profit tumbled to 3.9 billion won ($2.8 million) in the second quarter from a year earlier with sales down 57.5% to 809.5 billion won.“We are considering cutting and slowing down the mid-to-long-term cathode capacity, given the recent sluggish growth and volatilities in the EV market,” said EcoPro BM Vice President Kim Jang-Woo, adding the company is set to unveil details in the second half once it makes a decision.“We are keeping investments for localization requests by customers to meet regulations in Europe and North America,” Kim said.
EcoPro BM’s sale volumes of cathodes for ESS and power tools jumped 85% and 46% in the second quarter from the previous three months, respectively, although its total cathode sales volume dipped by 3.6%.“We are paying attention to the ESS industry as a key demand sector for secondary batteries,” Kim said.“The ESS industry is expected to enjoy the rising demand for global eco-friendly policies and artificial intelligence data centers, which will increase our sales volume in the second half.”SIGNS OF STABILIZATIONEcoPro BM’s parent EcoPro Co.expected cathodes prices to show signs of stabilization in the third quarter.
The company suffered an operating loss of 54.6 billion won on a consolidated basis in the second quarter, swinging from a profit of 170.3 billion won a year earlier, as sales skidded 57.2% to 864.1 billion won.“We had a difficult time managing profitability as we had to use expensive raw materials despite lower sales prices in the first half,” Park Jae-ha, senior managing director of EcoPro.
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