LG Elec aims to up 3G phone sales by 58% in '05

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Electronics Inc, the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it aimed to boost this year's sales of pricey third-generation mobile phones by 58 percent to 6 million.

LG, a latecomer to the crowded mobile phone market, aims to bring its telecommunication division back to profit with the launch of expensive new models after posting its first loss from cell phone sales during the second quarter of 2005.

"We aim to sell 6 million 3G phones this year, versus shipment of 3.8 million last year," an LG spokesman said.

Its major clients include Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, to which LG Electronics offers some 1 million 3G phones every quarter, the spokesman said.

LG, which overtook Siemens last year as the world's number 4 handset maker, posted an operating loss of 4 billion won (US$3.85 million) from phone sales in the April-June period, hit by cut-throat competition from bigger rivals such as Nokia and Motorola Inc.

Profit margin in the quarter also collapsed to a negative 0.2 percent, from a 3.6 percent profit margin in the first quarter and compared with 6.4 percent a year ago.

In July the company cut this year's target for overall handset sales to more than 50 million units from 62 million phones targeted earlier.