Korea’s largest consumer electronics company, LG Electronics Inc, has reported surging revenues and profits on the back of excellent sales of CD-ROM drives and thin film transistor liquid crystal displays. Net profits for the six months to June 30 were up 40.0% to the equivalent of $122.5m on revenue that rose 19.6% to $4.92bn. LG is a big supplier of chunky domestic appliances such as fridges and air conditioners, but CD-ROM drives have been the big performers with sales up 164% in the six month period. LG also supplies Compaq Computer Corp with LCD screens following a new contract signed last year which the company estimates will be worth $1bn within five years. The company is also in the vanguard of Windows CE based palmtop computer manufacturers. LG Electronics shares rose $0.45 to close at $21.70 on Wednesday. In contrast, LG Semicon Co, the chip manufacturing arm of the LG Group, saw an 88% drop in first half earnings from $145m to just $18m. The problem, the company said, has been the fall in price of its main product, the 16-megabit DRAM chip, from $30 a year ago to just $7 in the current period. Profits for the full year are expected to improve as semiconductor prices stabilize and demand for 64-megabit DRAMs start to show increases.
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