LG Group’s chemicals and electronics components maker posted first quarter sales of nearly 5.5 trillion won, a 24.1 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

According to LG Chem’s first quarter figures released Tuesday, the company’s operating profits rose 28 percent to 835.3 billion won ($765 million), while net profits came in at 656.6 billion won, rising 26.8 percent.

Much of the rise was fueled by improvements in the company’s petrochemical’s business, whose sales came in at 4.29 trillion won, up 29.7 percent from a year ago, while operating profits jumped 50.1 percent over the same period to 735.6 billion won.

The company attributed the improvements in the petrochemicals business to an increase in polyolefin sales and the continuing rise of acryl and synthetic rubber prices.

In contrast, LG Chem’s electronics component business suffered a 35.6 percent decline in operating profits despite the 3.5 percent rise in sales. However, the company said that first quarter’s operating profits had risen 156.7 percent compared to the previous quarter despite the market for IT devices remaining sluggish.

Samsung Engineering Co., the country’s largest industrial plant builder, also saw significant improvements, posting a record quarterly profit and sales figures on the same day.

For the first three months of the year, the company posted sales of 1.82 trillion won, while its operating and net profits came in at 161.6 billion won and 121.4 billion won, respectively.

According to the company, this is the first time its net profits rose above the 100 billion won mark.

Compared to the same period last year, Samsung Engineering’s sales increased by 67.1 percent, while operating profits saw a rise of 105.1 percent. The company’s net profits for the first quarter of this year were 74.4 percent higher than the figure posted a year earlier.

Of the first quarter sales, 66.4 percent was raised by its chemical plant business, the company said.

The remainder was raised from industrial infrastructure business, on which the company has been placing increasing emphasis since last year, the company said.

The industrial infrastructure business’ first quarter sales came in at 609.9 billion won, up 236.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)