SK Innovation warns refining recovery to take time, beats Q1 profit estimates

SEOUL, May 13 (Reuters) - SK Innovation 096770.KS, owner of South Korea's top refiner SK Energy, said on Wednesday the normalisation of production and logistics of its refining business is expected to take time even if the Middle East conflict is resolved.

The company posted an operating profit of 2.2 trillion won ($1.48 billion) for the January-March period, versus a 30 billion won loss a year earlier. That compared with a 1.4 trillion won forecast by LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analysts who are more consistently accurate.

Here are details of SK Innovation's first-quarter results:

• First-quarter revenue rose 15.2% to 24.2 trillion won from the same period a year earlier.

• SK On, which supplies batteries to Volkswagen VOWG.DE, Hyundai Motor 005380.KS and Ford Motor F.N, among others, narrowed its operating loss to 349 billion won in the first quarter from a 441 billion won loss in the previous quarter, as the EV battery business continues to struggle due to slowing EV demand.

• SK On expects long-term profitability to improve on European sales growth and North America energy storage system expansion.

• In March, SK On laid off 958 employees at its Atlanta, Georgia, plant, citing a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed by the company. SK On's major customer Ford said in December it was scrapping several EV models.

• Peer S-Oil 010950.KS, whose main shareholder is Saudi Aramco 2222.SE, said on Monday that it expects second-quarter refining margins to remain healthy, as supply disruptions look set to outweigh demand softness driven by high product prices.

($1 = 1,488.4000 won)