--- title: "Korea" canonical: "https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/issue/9/korea" publication: "The Hysteresis" publisher: "The Hysteresis" language: "en-US" guide: "https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/llms.txt" permalink: "https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/issue/9/korea" issue: 9 section: "korea" description: "LG, Samsung, SK — beyond the headlines" authors: ["Elise Huan-Cartwright"] published: 2026-08-10 updated: 2026-08-08 articles: 16 --- # The Hysteresis > The Hysteresis exists to give a small cross-functional team — strategy, investment, and procurement — a shared weekly instrument for reading the battery supply chain earlier than consensus. Success means the team consistently identifies inflection points in cell pricing, supplier health, and policy enforcement weeks or months before they surface in earnings calls, annual surveys, or trade press. The commercial mechanism is internal-first: the publication proves itself as a decision tool inside the organization, then extends to paid subscribers and a practitioner community as upside. Revenue follows utility — if the team makes better-timed procurement calls and competitive assessments because of what they read here, the publication earned its place. [Read on the website]() ## Issue 9 — Korea LG, Samsung, SK — beyond the headlines ### Q2 Maker Dashboard All three Korean battery makers reported operating profit in Q2 2026. The trade press treated this as synchronized recovery. The underlying data says otherwise. Each result carries different one-time items, different levels of 45X credit dependence, and critically different disclosure quality. LGES showed its ex-credit loss; Samsung SDI and SK On did not provide the figures needed to calculate theirs. A reader comparing the three on headline operating profit alone would rank them in roughly the inverse order of their transparency. The demand picture adds a second dimension. Korean makers' combined EV battery share in non-China markets fell to 28.4% through May (SNE Research, Jan-May 2026), down 8.7 percentage points YoY. ESS revenue surged at LGES, but EV volume share continued to erode across all three. Profitability and volume are moving in different directions, and per-kWh ASP data remains absent from every filing. - **LGES Returns to Profit on Credit Expansion** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: LGES Result Q2 operating profit KRW 113.3B (1.5% margin) on KRW 7.6T revenue. AMPC contribution KRW 241B, up 27% QoQ. The company directly disclosed its ex-credit result: negative KRW 127.7B, improved from negative KRW 397.6B in Q1 but still loss-making on an underlying basis. Net loss KRW 328.6B after non-operating charges. - **Samsung SDI Breaks Seven-Quarter Loss Streak, Partially** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: Samsung Result Consolidated operating profit KRW 203.8B; battery-segment operating profit KRW 159.3B. Consolidated AMPC was KRW 107.7B per KRX filing, but Samsung did not allocate this to the battery segment. An unquantified US tariff refund also contributed. The battery-segment ex-credit result cannot be calculated from available public filings. - **SK On Reports KRW 822B Swing, Quantifies Nothing** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: SK On Result Battery-business operating profit swung from negative KRW 349.2B in Q1 to positive KRW 821.8B. Management attributed the result to higher Asian sales, customer compensation, and increased AMPC. None of these items were individually quantified. The recurring battery-business result cannot be recovered from reviewed public materials. - **LGES Transparency Creates an Unfavorable Headline Comparison** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: Disclosure Quality LGES disclosed its ex-credit loss directly in IR materials. Samsung SDI reported consolidated AMPC but withheld the battery-segment allocation and left its tariff refund unquantified. SK On quantified none of its cited profit drivers. In a side-by-side comparison, the company that shows its 45X dependence reads as the weakest, which penalizes disclosure. - **Per-kWh ASP Data Absent From All Three Filings** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: ASP Gap None of the three companies published a per-kWh ASP figure, QoQ ASP change, or forward ASP guidance for any product category in Q2 materials. LGES's operating margin compressed from 8.1% in Q2 2025 to 1.5%, but this aggregates mix shift, subsidy changes, and price movement without isolating any single factor. - **Korean EV Battery Share Drops Below 29% Ex-China** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: EV Share SNE Research Jan-May 2026: combined Korean share in the non-China EV battery market fell to 28.4%, down 8.7pp YoY. LGES volume grew 1.0% but share dropped to 16.7% (down 20.2%). Samsung SDI volume declined 29.7%. SK On declined 5.7% but was the only maker showing sequential improvement versus the four-month figure. - **LGES ESS Revenue Rose 4.6x YoY in H1** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: ESS Pivot H1 2026 ESS revenue reached a high-20% share of LGES total revenue, up 4.6x YoY. New ESS contracts exceeded KRW 3T in H1. Management guided Q3 ESS shipments up 50%+ QoQ as North American lines ramp, but placed ex-IRA ESS profitability at Q4 earliest. - **All Three Guide to ESS-Driven Second Half Improvement** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Tag: H2 Outlook LGES expects 20%+ QoQ revenue growth in Q3 and reiterated full-year 20% growth guidance. Samsung SDI said US ESS orders cover substantial capacity through 2029, with US LFP cell production starting October. SK On offered no quantitative H2 guidance in reviewed materials. ### SK On Decomposition - [SK On Q2 2026: KRW 821.8B Operating Profit, None of It Decomposable]() — By [Elise Huan-Cartwright]() · Published 2026-08-08 · Format: The Earnings Decomposition SK On swung from a KRW 349.2B loss to a KRW 821.8B operating profit in Q2. SK Innovation named customer compensation and higher AMPC as the drivers and quantified neither. The AMPC figure, which appeared only in Korean-language materials through Q4 2025, has been absent from both languages since Q1 2026. All four economic vintages this publication tracks — policy credits, legacy settlements, recurring cell operations, ESS ramp costs — remain unpopulated, and the underlying cell business may still be loss-making. The US footprint is on a separate clock: Georgia consolidated to one plant, 37% of the workforce cut, the first named ESS customer relationship still pre-acceptance. ### StarPlus Timeline Check - [StarPlus LFP Has a September Line and a 2027 Cathode Contract]() — By [Elise Huan-Cartwright]() · Published 2026-08-08 Samsung SDI's Q2 deck (July 30) reaffirmed "timely US prismatic LFP mass production" at StarPlus. No plant-level volume, yield, or utilization data accompanied the statement. [ETNews](https://en.etnews.com/20260706200004) (July 6) reported the first LFP line producing 273 Ah cells in September, ahead of the Q4 2026 corporate milestone. But the same reporter's [June 25 piece](https://en.etnews.com/20260625200002) places equipment installation for the broader conversion in H1 2027, with verified supply from two additional lines (~12 GWh each) in H2 2027. ### Source Evidence Trail - **Samsung SDI StarPlus: Three of Four Phase 1 Lines Converting to ESS, Equipment Suppliers Named** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Line-level detail on NCA-to-LFP conversion scope and procurement status at the Kokomo JV. - **StarPlus First LFP Line Pulled Forward to September; Hungary Prismatic Lines Entering DPV for VW** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Timeline acceleration source for LFP conversion; confirms European retooling is parallel, not sequential. - **SNE Research: Korean Battery Makers Lose 8.5 Points of Non-China EV Share in Four Months** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Primary data for the market-share compression trend; combined Korean share at 28.7% as of June. - **IRS Notice 2026-15: 50% MACR Threshold and Direct-Material Provenance Tracking for 45X Cell Credits** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Compliance framework source; six-year statute of limitations and enhanced penalties now apply to 2026 sales. - **Samsung SDI Q2: Battery Segment Posts First Profit in Seven Quarters, Tariff Refund Cited** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Korean-language release names AMPC and tariff refund as drivers but quantifies neither separately. - **SK On Q2: KRW 821.8B Operating Profit on BlueOval Exit Savings and Customer Compensation** — [Source]() — Published 2026-08-08 Profit swing source; JV unwinding saves ~KRW 500B/year but AMPC contribution remains undisclosed. ## Other sections in Issue 9 - [Signal]() - [China]() - [The Log]() - [Defense]() - [Qualification]() ## More - [Publication guide]() - [Issue archive]()