SEOUL, South Korea—LG Display Co. said third-quarter net profit soared on record sales and cost cuts amid a recovery in prices for flat panels.
LG Display, the world's second-largest manufacturer of liquid crystal displays used in flat screen televisions and other products, earned 559 billion won ($483.7 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, it said in a statement Thursday. The company posted a net profit of 295 billion won a year earlier.
Sales during the quarter rose 55 percent to a record 5.97 trillion won from 3.86 trillion won a year earlier.
"Along with increased market demand and selling price, customer-oriented marketing activities and full operation of new production lines contributed to the record high quarterly results," LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo said in the release.
The Seoul, South Korea-based company also achieved an all-time high operating profit for a three-month period of 904 billion won, according to company spokeswoman Claire Ohm.
LG Display said its average selling price per square meter of display area shipped, an industry benchmark, rose 12 percent to $883 compared with the second quarter. The price fell 16 percent, however, from the same period last year.
Ohm said that the growth in sales and cost reductions were behind the increase in net profit from the year before.
LG Display competes with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., the world's biggest manufacturer of LCDs.
The results came amid a rebound in the flat panel industry, which had suffered as a supply glut caused prices to slump.
The large-sized LCD panel business returned to profitability in the third quarter after a year of losses or zero returns, according to U.S. research firm iSuppli Corp.
According to iSuppli's preliminary estimates, worldwide shipments of large-sized LCD panels -- which it defines as 10 inches or bigger -- amounted to 148.3 million units in the third quarter, up 28.9 percent from the same period last year.
Shares in LG Display, which released earnings results after the stock market closed, rose 0.2 percent to close at 33,250 won.
LG Display's stock price has risen 58 percent so far this year.
South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. is the largest shareholder in LG Display with a stake of 37.9 percent.
