Myeong-seok Chae, Gounee Yang Global Economic News SAMSUNG SDI is expected to post record earnings in the first quarter of this year with strong electric vehicle (EV) battery sales despite unstable market conditions. It plans to announce its first-quarter earnings Thursday. According to investment analysis firm FnGuide, the market consensus of Samsung SDI’s first-quarter earnings is estimated to be 3.8 trillion won (US$3.05 billion) in sales and 286.4 billion won in operating profit. The market consensus estimate for sales is 800 billion won, higher than Samsung SDI’s all-time high sales of 2.96 trillion won in the first quarter of last year. Although the first quarter is a seasonally off-season, Samsung SDI’s estimated first-quarter operating profit surpassed the earnings of 265.7 billion won in the fourth quarter last year. This is almost twice the operating profit of 133.2 billion won in the first quarter of last year, and even higher than South Korea’s No.1 battery manufacture LG Energy Solutions’ consensus estimate of 258.9 billion won. Considering recent unfavorable market conditions such as rise in rising battery material prices, supply chain woes, and decreased EV sales due to chip shortages, Samsung SDI’s first-quarter consensus estimates are quiet high. In particular, Samsung SDI’s record first-quarter earnings were led by strong sales of batteries. Electronic material business also posted stable sales with the growth of OLEDs and semiconductors. | 