South Korea’s battery maker Samsung SDI Co. swung to profit in the fourth quarter last year and for full-2017 thanks to growing demand for clean batteries to power motor vehicles and commercial and industrial sites.

According to its regulatory filing on Tuesday, it posted 118.6 billion won ($110.6 million) in operating profit during the October to December period last year, reversing from an operating loss of 58 billion won a year earlier. Its sales reached a quarterly record of 1.8 trillion won, soaring 42.3 percent on year thanks to expanded supply of automotive batteries to the European market and increased sales of energy storage systems. Net income grew more than 30-fold from a year ago to 240 billion won.

As of 11:56 a.m. on Wednesday, shares of Samsung SDI rose 3.23 percent to 207,500 won in Seoul trading.

For full 2017, operating profit swung to 116.9 billion won on consolidated basis from an operating loss of 926 billion won in the previous year. The last time it had been in the black for full-year operating profit was 2014. Revenue rose 21.6 percent on year to 6.3 trillion won, and net profit jumped 204.7 percent to 643.2 billion won.

The company attributed the strong performance to the brisk sales of semiconductor and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) materials, offsetting the weak performance in the electronic materials business hit by the low seasonal demands. An official from the company said that it would be able to keep up the sound performance in the first quarter this year thanks to the increasing supply of battery cells for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to European customers and boom in the commercial ESS market at home.

In a separate disclosure, Samsung SDI also announced that it would pay out a yearly cash dividend of 66.9 billion won, 1,000 won per common share and 1,050 won per preferred share.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]