Asian Stocks Slip as Tech Rout Deepens, Japan Steadies Ahead of Election 
Washington Post Publisher Will Lewis Steps Down After Layoffs 
CK Hutchison Launches Arbitration After Panama Court Revokes Canal Port Licences 
American Airlines CEO to Meet Pilots Union Amid Storm Response and Financial Concerns 
Bank of Japan Signals Readiness for Near-Term Rate Hike as Inflation Nears Target 
U.S. Stock Futures Slide as Tech Rout Deepens on Amazon Capex Shock 
Gold Prices Slide Below $5,000 as Strong Dollar and Central Bank Outlook Weigh on Metals 
Russian Stocks End Mixed as MOEX Index Closes Flat Amid Commodity Strength 
SoftBank Shares Slide After Arm Earnings Miss Fuels Tech Stock Sell-Off 
OpenAI Expands Enterprise AI Strategy With Major Hiring Push Ahead of New Business Offering 
South Africa Eyes ECB Repo Lines as Inflation Eases and Rate Cuts Loom 
Global PC Makers Eye Chinese Memory Chip Suppliers Amid Ongoing Supply Crunch 
Nvidia, ByteDance, and the U.S.-China AI Chip Standoff Over H200 Exports 
Gold and Silver Prices Rebound After Volatile Week Triggered by Fed Nomination 
Vietnam’s Trade Surplus With US Jumps as Exports Surge and China Imports Hit Record 
Oil Prices Slide on US-Iran Talks, Dollar Strength and Profit-Taking Pressure 
Instagram Outage Disrupts Thousands of U.S. Users 
LG Electronics’ home appliances business is soaring, as shown in its last year’s sales record that jumped by 21.7% to ₩27.11 trillion or around $22.92 billion. Its revenues in 2021 did not only set a new record for the company, but it also beat the American brand, Whirlpool, to become the top home appliance manufacturer in the world, based on sales.
Whirlpool has been LG Electronics’ rival for a long time, and this time, it was able to outdo it as the former only showed $22 billion net sales during its earnings call this week. According to The Korea Herald, the performance of the company’s products such as washing machines, air conditioners, refrigerators, OLED TVs, air purifiers, and similar appliances have pushed LG’s full year profits up to an all-time high which is ₩74.72 trillion. This revenue result is said to have shown an increase of 28.7%.
The best thing is that LG Electronics seems to maintain this figure even up to this month. It means its earnings have not changed up until this early 2022.
However, the company’s executives suggested during the earnings call that they may not be able to maintain the figures for the years to come. The officials explained that they think so because of the price increases in raw materials and issues with shipments due to congestions at the ports.
It was predicted that the impact and uncertainties will be felt more in LG’s North American business unit. The reason for this is the resurgence of COVID-19 cases as new variants come and infect people at a fast rate.
“Revenue growth in 2022 is forecast to decline year-on-year,” LG’s H&A business management division vice president, Kim Ikueon, said during the conference. “Due to raw material prices and logistics costs, profitability is expected to slightly decline year-on-year.”
The executive added that LG Electronics would do whatever it could to reduce the impact of uncertainties by multisourcing and cutting logistics costs. Meanwhile, The Korea Economic reported that with the overall good performance and results of the LG’s home appliance and air solution (H&A) unit, it has effectively overtaken Whirlpool for the first time on a yearly basis.
