LG Display has posted its second-quarter earnings for 2018, showing slight decreases across the board in the face of growing competition in the industry. For clarity, the company in question is LG Electronics’ display technology division and its losses come in spite of the fact that the firm has reportedly been supplying screens for none other than Apple. The news isn’t all bad, as the company did post a relatively positive showing for Q1 2018. For the quarter ending June 30, the company’s revenues fell to around $4.9 million, which is a difference of around a single percent drop from last quarter’s $5 million. Worse, operating losses rose quarterly to approximately $249.9 million up from $86.8 million. Finally, net losses were up by more than 500-percent moving quarter-over-quarter from $43.4 million to around $266.8 million. EBITDA figures fell around $116 million as well.
On a year-over-year basis, LG Display isn’t doing a whole lot better either. However, the company chalks its past few earnings reports primarily up rapidly falling panel pricing coupled with lower demand from manufacturers. Moreover, LG Display has been shifting strategies in a bid to compete with Samsung and others in the industry, specifically in the market for OLED panels. As a relatively new player in that portion of the industry, that has resulted in a higher-than-normal level of borrowing and spending. In terms of sales, nearly half of LG’s display revenue was generated by televisions – approximately 42-percent, while mobile came second at around 22-percent thanks to partnerships and sales of its own mobile devices. Tablets and laptops accounted for 19-percent while more traditional desktop computer monitors earned around 17-percent of LG Display’s revenue. The company expects to return to profitability on television panels in the third-quarter of 2018.
Looking forward, LG Display will be redoubling its efforts in OLED, beginning with further investments through the latter half of 2019 and its entry into the global market for larger panels. Of course, portions of that will obviously be in the television sector but it also plans to focus on differentiating itself in the LCD display segment. That includes a renewed focus on trimming back bezels and creating borderless displays for use across the tech industry. That will be augmented by the engineering and introduction of high-value LCD televisions. Sales are expected to be mostly driven by the upcoming shopping seasons with improvements predicted for Q3 2018.