Gangkong Koryo Chemical (KCC), South Korea's largest paint and building materials manufacturer, recently released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024, showing that it recorded an operating income of 1,588.4 billion won (about $1.15 billion) and an operating profit of 106.9 billion won (about $77 million), up 1.5% and 41.0%, respectively, from the same period last year.

KCC's main business areas include building materials, Coatings, silicone and other (advanced materials). Among them, silicone is its most core business segment, contributing 738.5 billion won (about $535 million) of operating income in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for 46.5% of the entire quarter's revenue, but down 8.1% year-on-year.

On May 14, KCC completed the acquisition of the remaining equity interest in Momentive Performance Materials group (Momentive), a global high-performance silicone and specialty solutions company, and announced that the latter became a wholly-owned subsidiary of KCC. KCC has been the majority shareholder of Momentive since 2020.

The coatings business was the second largest source of results for KCC, with operating income of KRW 419.1 billion (about US $303 million) in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for 26.4% of the entire quarter's revenue, an increase of 20.8% year-on-year. In terms of operating profit, the coatings business contributed 54.6 billion won (about $39.5 million), much higher than the 2.7 billion won (about $1.95 million) of the silicone business.

KCC's coatings business includes architectural coatings, general industrial coatings, Marine coatings, heavy anti-corrosion coatings and automotive coatings. In 2023, the KCC Coatings business recorded 1,657.1 billion won (approximately $1.228 billion based on the exchange rate at the time of the annual report). In the "TOP15 Global Listed Coatings companies" list released before the "2024 Global Coatings Top 100", KCC ranked 15th; It ranks sixth in Asia behind Nippon Holdings, Asia Coatings, Kansai Coatings, Three Trees and Berger Paint.