Hyosung Group thrives again in Q2 with stellar earnings

South Korea’s textile and chemicals conglomerate Hyosung Group has again reported stellar business results in the last quarter, continuing the strong earnings momentum from the first quarter of this year. Market analysts say that the group’s full-year operating profit in 2021 will likely surpass 2 trillion won ($1.74 billion) for the first time since its foundation in 1966.

Hyosung’s main affiliate Hyosung TNC Corp. on July 30 reported that it recorded the highest quarterly earnings, with an operating profit of 387.1 billion won ($337.1 million) on revenue of 2.14 trillion won ($1.86 billion) for the second quarter.

Hyosung TNC is the global market leader of spandex, a textile material widely used for making a wide range of garments such as yoga pants, hiking clothes and other sportswear. The company currently holds more than a 30% share of the global spandex market.

“The global demand for different types of sportswear is still strong, especially among the millennials, fueling the sustained growth in our spandex sales,” said a Hyosung TNC representative.

Likewise, Hyosung’s chemical materials affiliate Hyosung Chemical in the second quarter posted an operating profit of 71.3 billion won ($62.1 million), an astonishing 1881% growth from the same period in 2020.

The chemical company said that the growth largely came from the sharp price hikes in polypropylene (PP), its main product, throughout 2021. The price of PP, widely used in films, medical products as well as plumbing facilities, rose by more than 50% compared to the beginning of the year due to stronger demands.  

Hyosung Applied Materials, a tire cord maker, made a positive turnaround in the second quarter by reporting an operating profit of 117.8 billion won ($102.6 million). The company made a loss of 42.8 billion won ($37.3 million) in the first quarter. Its market share in the global polyester tire cord market is more than 50%. The company’s recent focus is on carbon fibers, which are expected to replace steel plates used in vehicles.

Financial analysts project Hyosung Group’s total operating profit in 2021 to be in the range of 2.1-2.3 trillion won ($1.8-2.0 billion), a sharp growth from 462.7 billion ($403 million) in the pandemic-hit year of 2020.

Hyosung Group underwent corporate restructuring in June 2018, by spinning off four affiliates, Hyosung TNC, Hyosung Chemical, Hyosung Applied Materials and Hyosung Heavy Industries, as separate entities under the holding company Hyosung Corporation.

The group is also putting heavy efforts to expand its presence in hydrogen. Hyosung in June this year kicked off the construction of the world’s largest liquid hydrogen plant, located in Korea, in partnership with the global industrial gas supplier Linde plc. The plant will start operation in May 2023 with an annual capacity of 13,000 tons.

Another Hyosung affiliate Hyosung Heavy Industries will also invest 1 trillion won ($871.3 billion) over the next years to ramp up the group’s annual liquid hydrogen capacity to 39,000 tons.

Write to Kyung-min Kang at kkm1026@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.