Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn. (Photo: Hanwha Group)

Hanwha Corp. achieved a remarkable business performance for the first quarter of this year, outperforming the market consensus on the back of petrochemical and defense industry subsidiaries’ strong business performances.

Under the leadership of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, Hanwha Corp. made an earnings surprise. Kim came back as an unregistered executive of Hanwha Corp. and its subsidiaries – Hanwha Solution and Hanwha E&C – for the first time in seven years.

In its Q1 consolidated statement, Hanwha Corp. said it posted 12.838.2 trillion won in sales and 848.5 trillion won in operating profit. The company saw sales decline 11.23 percent compared to the same period in the previous year due to the liquidation of some businesses and efforts to make businesses substantial.

But Hanwha Corp. saw Q1 operating profit and net profit jump 186.2 percent and 343.9 percent, respectively, the best-ever business performances on a quarterly basis.

The corporation’s earnings surprised the market, given the consensus was that Hanwha would post about 360 billion won in operating profit. Great contributors to Hanwha Corp.’s good business performance were subsidiaries Hanwha Solution and Hanwha Aerospace, which each chalked up the best-ever Q1 business performance.

Hanwha Solution saw its operating profit and net profit surge 12.3 percent and 501.4 percent year-on-year, respectively, on the back of the rising petrochemical business.

Hanwha Aerospace saw its operating profit jump 1,959.4 percent year-on-year and net profit change to a 100.1 billion won surplus on the back of the strong business performance of Hanwha Systems and other defense industry units, and rising civilian industry profitability.

Hanwha Corp. is predicted to continue this good business performance trends into the second quarter.

Hanwha Solution President Kim Suggests H2GT as Solution to Coping with Climate Change

President Kim Dong-kwan of Hanwha Solutions suggested a hydrogen combustion technology as one way of solving global environmental problems.

True to its tenet, “Small power generation will bring about great changes,” President Kim said Hanwha is devoting itself to coping with global climate change. He suggested they pursue effectual solutions by smart and economical eco-friendly technologies.

He made the remarks while delivering his keynote speech at 2021 P4G Seoul Summit on May 31.

President Kim’s remarks may be construed as Hanwha’s determination to playing its role as an eco-friendly energy company for sustainable growth. Hanwha Group has now grown into a global top-tier photovoltaic power company.

President Kim put forward his group’s vision, which is designed to cope with climate change, saying, “Hanwha will make tangible progress through innovation of every moment.” In particular, he said, “Technology innovation is essential to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions while utilizing the conventional production facilities.”

He introduced a hydrogen combustion technology as one of the solutions to cope with climate change.

The hydrogen combustion technology, dubbed “hydrogen to gas turbine (H2GT),” is designed to generate power by burning hydrogen and LNG in a gas turbine.

Utilizing H2GT will reduce carbon emissions more than 30 percent, compared to the conventional LNG power generation and prevent nitric oxide emissions.

Hanwha General Chemical, a subsidiary of Hanwha Solution, has secured the H2GT technology after it acquired 100 percent stakes in U.S. Power Systems Mfg., LLC (PSM) and Ansaldo Thomassen B.V (ATH) of the Netherlands, which possess hydrogen combustion technologies.

Currently, the H2GT technology can mix and burn up to 65 percent of hydrogen against LNG, and research in raising the hydrogen content to 100 percent to dramatically reduce carbon emissions is getting under way.

President Kim said, “The H2GT technology may be a piece in the puzzle of decarbonization, but reinventing the power generation business using its potential will realize great changes.”