OCI Turns to Operating Loss in Q2... Down 35.8 Billion KRW Year-on-Year
335 Billion KRW Profit in Q2 2024 Turns to 2.3 Billion KRW Loss This Year
Profitability Indicators Decline Across the Board... Company Fails to Defend Earnings
Performance Turns Negative Amid Restructuring Toward High-Purity Chemical Materials Business
OCI reported a marked decline in its consolidated results for the second quarter of 2025, turning to an operating loss compared to the same period last year. Despite expanding its portfolio of high-value-added chemical materials focused on specialty materials for semiconductors and secondary batteries, the company failed to secure profitability amid weakening global demand and rising cost pressures.
On July 23, OCI announced that it recorded an operating loss of 2.3 billion KRW in the second quarter of this year, shifting from an operating profit of 33.5 billion KRW in the same period last year. Revenue fell by 7.0% to 526.9 billion KRW, and net profit also swung from a surplus of 24.8 billion KRW to a deficit of 2.4 billion KRW. Both pre-tax profit and net profit attributable to controlling shareholders turned to losses, with all profitability indicators deteriorating across the board.
Multiple factors were cited as the reasons for the poor performance: a decrease in operating rates due to regular maintenance in the carbon chemicals division; a narrowing of product spreads caused by global oil price and exchange rate declines; and the rollover of export volumes at OCI China, the company's Chinese subsidiary. In the basic chemicals division, continued weakening demand for key products such as semiconductor-grade polysilicon, high-purity phosphoric acid, and electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide also made it difficult to defend earnings.
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OCI is the only company in Korea with manufacturing technology for semiconductor-grade polysilicon and operates a precision chemical business based on high-purity chemical materials. The company plans to improve profitability in the second half of the year through gradual recovery in the market for major products, production efficiency improvements, cost reduction, and supply chain diversification. In particular, OCI aims to secure a foundation for mid- to long-term growth by expanding mass production of new high-value-added products such as high-softening-point pitch and specialty materials for silicon anodes.
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