Hanwha Chemical reported on Aug. 11 that its operating profit in the second quarter increased 213.16 percent from the same period last year to 293.56 billion won (US$267.60 million), its highest quarterly figure.Its sales increased 19.1 percent to 2.39 trillion won and net profit surged 835.1 percent to 310.16 billion won on-year.

Its petrochemicals and solar businesses backed the chemical arm of Hanwha Group’s strong performance. In petrochemicals, low oil prices led to lower production cost while sales of high added-value products including EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) increased, resulting in 135 percent hike on-year in operating profit to 142.9 billion won.Operating profits from solar and other sectors soared 358 percent to 133.4 billion won demonstrating the group’s dominating position in the world’s solar industry.Hanwha Chemical also completed restructuring weaker performing businesses such as bio and polysilicon, a key raw material for solar cells.The company expects the commodity-product spread will continue to expand as the price of raw materials is settling downward. The market conditions also remain steady, forecasting an upward trajectory for the chemical company.