Seoul, April 7 (IANS) LG Energy Solution Ltd, South Korea’s leading battery maker, on Tuesday estimated it posted an operating loss in the first quarter, apparently due to the fallout from the US-Iran war.

Operating loss came to 207.8 billion won (US$138.2 million) in the January-March period, shifting from a profit of 374.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales decreased 2.5 percent to 6.55 trillion won. Data for net earnings was unavailable, reports Yonhap news agency.

The operating loss was 30.4 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

The company will release its final earnings report later.

While LG Energy Solution did not provide details of the preliminary earnings report, industry watchers said the loss apparently came amid higher production costs triggered by the Middle East crisis.

The company’s initial expenditures on its North American energy storage system (ESS) battery production facilities may also have weighed on its performance, they added.

LG Energy Solution said it received a tax credit of 189.8 billion won through the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (AMPC) under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

Excluding the AMPC, the company recorded an operating loss of 397.5 billion won in the first quarter, the company said.

Earlier, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo called for efforts to bolster the power infrastructure business to meet rising energy demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

Koo visited the headquarters of LG Energy Solution Vertech, a wholly owned U.S. arm of LG Energy Solution Ltd. based in Massachusetts, as the South Korean battery maker aims to expand its presence in the North American energy storage system (ESS) market, according to LG.

–IANS

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