LG Chem’s second quarter earnings reflected an improvement from the first quarter, with operating profit growing 22.6 percent to 501.5 billion won, while net profit rose 17.8 percent to 401 billion won, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

Sales rose by 3.4 percent to reach 5.9 trillion won.

LG Chem attributed the growth to product innovation, an upturn in demand based on anticipated economic growth, combined with the falling Japanese currency that helped stabilize raw material prices.

“It was a combination of all these things, along with a product differentiation achieved with improved productivity,” said Sung Hwan-doo, a spokesman for LG Chem. He added that this led to bigger sales of high-return products such as film patterned retarders for 3D panels and indium tin oxide for touch panels.

Compared to the same period in the previous quarter, the improvement was not as marked, but analysts said the results were nevertheless heartening, especially since the results beat the market consensus that had put sales at 5.89 trillion won and operating profit at 483.9 billion won.

LG Chem had been suffering from languishing demand for petrochemicals amid sluggish global and local economic conditions.

The battery market had not been of help either to the company, which is the world’s top maker of lithium-ion batteries, with carmakers failing to unleash orders on account of weak consumer demand.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)