Good afternoon. We will now start LG Chem's twenty twenty-four third quarter earnings conference call. This is Hyun Suk Yun, Head of IR at LG Chem. Thank you for taking an interest in LG Chem, and taking the time to join us today amidst your busy schedules. We will begin with a brief overview of the twenty twenty-four Q3 earnings performance, followed by the CFO presentation highlighting the key developments. We will also talk about future strategies, and following the presentation, we will open the floor to questions. Please note that the presentations will be interpreted simultaneously, while the Q&A session will be interpreted consecutively. For those with web access, the materials presented during this conference call can be viewed online and are also available for download from our corporate website. Let's begin today's call with the introduction of the management team. We have CFO Dong Seok Cha; Yoon Ho Lee, in charge of company's business planning; Cheol Ho Yang from Petrochemicals; Jung Won Seo from Advanced Materials, and Sun Shin Cho from Life Sciences. An overview of our financial highlights for the quarter. On page three, consolidated Q3 sales and P&L. Q3 sales increased Q over Q at KRW 12.67 trillion. Operating profit was KRW 498 billion, and OP margin was 3.9%. We were able to increase our profitability compared to the previous quarter. We were able to also complete the sale of our polymer material business, and we were able to significantly increase our non-operating income. Next, page four is our consolidated financial status. As of the end of the third quarter, 2024, assets were KRW 80.8 trillion. Liabilities were around KRW 43.2 trillion, and capital was around KRW 45.6 trillion. The debt ratio recorded a slight increase to 94.7% compared to the previous quarter, due to the rise in borrowings. Next, I'll explain the performance and outlook by business division. Page 5, Petrochemical division. 2024 Q3, the petrochemical business's sales was KRW 4.813 trillion, and we recorded an operating loss of KRW 338 billion. The slight loss was due to temporary increases in raw material costs and freight charges, as well as the impact of currency depreciation. Starting from the fourth quarter, driven by higher spreads from falling raw material prices, increased utilization of the new plant, and expansion of shipments to North America, profitability is expected to gradually improve. Next, advanced materials. In Q3, advanced materials sales was KRW 1.712 trillion, a slight decrease QOQ. Operating profit was KRW 150 billion, and OP margin was 8.8%. The shipment volume and ASP of battery materials slightly decreased compared to the previous quarter, and due to the impact of currency depreciation, the overall profitability of the advanced materials division also fell slightly. In Q4, due to year-end inventory adjustments by battery material customers and the seasonal off-peak period for products in the downstream electronic materials industry, we expect sales and profitability to decline. Next, life sciences. In Q3, sales was KRW 307 billion, and we recorded an operating loss of KRW 1 billion. Although the shipments of major products such as diabetes treatment, infertility treatment, and vaccine showed strong performance, due to increased R&D costs for future products, projects including global phase three clinical trials, a slight loss recorded. In the fourth quarter, a continued strong growth of major products is expected. However, as global clinical projects progress, R&D costs are also anticipated to increase, limiting improvements in profitability. Next, Farm Hannong. Q3 sales was KRW 113 billion, and operating loss was KRW 20 billion. Domestic sales of crop protection products increased slightly. However, due to the withdrawal from the low-margin fertilizer chemical business, both sales and profitability declined YOY. Moving forward, we will continue our efforts to improve our revenue structure by expanding domestic and international sales of crop protection products. Last, Energy Solution. This morning, Energy Solution presented their performance in detail during its earnings call. However, we'll briefly present its performance. In Q3, energy solution sales was KRW 6.878 trillion, operating profit was KRW 448 billion, and OP margin was 6.5%. Sales increased due to greater supply volumes to European customers and increased production from the North America joint venture, and profitability improved with stable metal prices. In Q4, we expect some customers to adjust their inventory and metal prices to fall. However, volume growth is expected to be sustained, thanks to the continued expansion of supply for EVs and ESS. This concludes the earnings presentation. Next, CFO Dong-Seok Cha will present the company's outlook. Good afternoon, this is CFO Dong-Seok Cha of LG Chem. I would like to express my great gratitude to all of you for taking the time to attend our company's earnings presentation despite your busy schedules. First, our Q3 performance has shown a slight improvement in sales and profitability compared to the previous quarter, thanks to the earnings improvement of our subsidiary Energy Solutions and the stable performance of advanced materials. Amidst challenging business environment, through cost advantage based on the company's excellent processing technology and efforts to improve internal efficiency, we are creating differentiated results within the industry. However, due to the geopolitical risk, slowdown in global economic recovery, chasm in EV, and further declines in metal prices, there are heightened concerns about uncertainty at home and abroad. In such challenging environment, to achieve higher growth in the medium to long term, it is crucial for the company to strengthen its fundamentals and enhance its core business competitiveness. We are preparing for this step by step, and we will continue to strengthen our efforts moving forward. First, considering the industry outlook, market volatility, and macro uncertainties, we are making investment decisions and execution more conservatively and cautiously. Initially, we had planned around KRW 4 trillion in CapEx this year. However, in light of changes in the market conditions and demand growth, we intend to reduce this to the mid KRW 2 trillion range. Next year, we will look at market conditions again, and we plan to maintain a conservative investment stance. Second, to improve profitability and manage cash flow, we will enhance our management capabilities through rigorous working capital management and cost reduction activities. We will continue to carry out operational optimization efforts. Third, even in times of crisis, we will continue to foster investments and R&D activities on nurturing our three key new growth engine businesses, steadily preparing for future growth. This year, we're actively fostering new businesses based on eco-friendly materials, including the commissioning of a pyrolysis oil plant incorporating supercritical technology, preparations for establishing a joint venture for next generation bio oil, HVO, and the initiation of the development of the bio-based raw materials 3HP. Alongside the construction of a North American cathode material plant, we are also actively expanding our external customer base for cathode materials to thoroughly prepare for the future. Thanks to these efforts, this July, the chemical industry publication, C&EN, ranked our company fourth among global chemical companies. This recognition is seen as a testament to our various achievements, resulting from the transformation of our business portfolio, even amid challenging market conditions. Dear shareholders and investors, the management environment before us remains challenging, but we believe that we can endure this difficult period by intensifying our internal efficiency and fostering our top three new growth driver businesses, and in so doing, we will proactively seize future growth opportunities and further expand our differentiated performances. We'll do our best to ensure that LG Chem can take a significant leap forward. We ask for your continued support. Thank you. Next, we will have a Q&A session. To give more people the opportunity to ask questions, we will limit it to two questions per person. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star key followed by one. If you wish to cancel your question, please press the star key followed by two. Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. There are two questions that I would like to ask you. The first question would be regards to your petrochemicals business, and the second question is related to your advanced materials business. For the petrochemicals business, the question that I would like to ask you is that if you look at the recent developments in China, the government has been releasing various fiscal measures and also economic stimulation measures in place. So how do you believe that this will improve your overall demand? In addition, if you could talk about the fourth quarter and twenty twenty-five overall market situation, and also your performance guidance, that would be appreciated. The second question that I have is about your advanced materials business, and in particular, your cathodes production. If you could talk about the fourth quarter and also full year volume, ASP, and also profitability outlook, that would be appreciated. And for twenty twenty-five, if you could talk about each of your different markets, specifically the European market and the US market, in terms of your overall volume expectations and performance expectations, that also would be appreciated. So maybe I can address your first question about what effects we do believe the Chinese policy measures will take, and how that will lead to an improvement in demand for our each of our products, and also the outlook and also performance guidance that we have for the fourth quarter and also twenty twenty-five. If we look at the recent Chinese government measures, they are engaging in not only monetary and fiscal policy, but also are planning to issue a financial policy, but are also planning to issue a lot of government bonds. So as a result of that, there is high expectations that this will lead to various fiscal stimulus measures. As a result of that, we do believe that there can be some improvement in the overall real demand, in terms of the overall improvement in consumption and also a recovery in the real estate economy. So we do think that this will gradually take place going forward. As a result of that, well, we do believe that we will somewhat be able to come off of a gradual recovery from a situation in which there is accumulated global supply, and see a gradual recovery in the overall supply and demand balance going forward. So if we talk about in more detail, our overall strategy for each of the different markets according to the market situation and how we want to deal with such a situation. First, starting with PVCs. We do think that there will be some recovery expectations with regards to the Chinese real estate market. But in addition to that, in the Indian market, we also believe that the supply and demand dynamics will improve. And in addition, in particular, there will also be in India the BIS certification program that will be introduced. And as a result of that, Chinese produced carbide-based PVC exports will not be able to be used. So as a result of that, we do believe that within the Indian market there will be a overall high high-end on a high price point market that we will be able to enjoy going forward. With regards to ABSs, due to the various economic stimulus measures the Chinese government is taking, we do think that there will be a gradual improvement in various commodity type products. And also, if we look at the more high heat resistant ABSs and ASAs that are used for China, for cars, and other types of high profitability application products. We do think that there will be an expansion in this area, and that also for the higher price point markets, we are also looking by region to the overall U.S. market to expand ourselves in that area. For high performance materials, because of the overall movement in China to try to turn out or change the old into new, we do think that there will be continuous solid demand for automobiles in China and also tires, so that the utilization in this area will continue to be strong. And as a result of that, we do think that will lead to strong demand or solid demand for auto vehicle SSBRs. So in the high value-added areas, we do think that we will be able to continue to expand our overall sales volume. So based upon this market backdrop and our strategies, if we talk about our performance guidance going forward, first, for the fourth quarter, we do expect that it would be difficult to achieve a very dramatic improvement in our overall performance. However, that has been said, we do think that product spreads will improve as the overall raw material price costs have dropped. And added to that, we also believe that there will be improvements in our overall utilization of the new capacity that we have, and also in terms of the increase in volume that we see going to the Americas. So as a result of that, we do think that there will be a QOQ improvement in our profitability. For next year, we do think that there will be stronger, we will have a stronger, high, premium product portfolio, and that we will be able to rationalize some of our lower profit lines, and also improve the productivity of our existing lines, together with various efforts to stabilize the utilization and the overall utilization that we have of new factories, which in all should be adding to and contributing to our target to have better profitability versus this year, so maybe next I can talk about your question related to the advanced materials business in terms of our guidance for our cathodes in the fourth quarter and also full year outlook. If we look at the shipments in the fourth quarter, versus the initial plans that we have, some of the volume was actually preemptively pulled in into the third quarter numbers, and also towards the end of the year, we do think that there will be some inventory adjustments that will be taking place downstream. So as a result of that, versus the third quarter, we do think that in terms of shipments, there will be a reduction of around 30%. In terms of the ASP, because lithium and nickel prices have continuously been falling from July, and this has been reflected into prices, versus the third quarter, we do think that there will be around a 10% drop. So taking these factors into consideration for the fourth quarter, in terms of our overall top line and profitability for cathodes, we do think that the fourth quarter will be lower than what we have seen in the third quarter. For the full year, this year and our expectations, as we take into consideration our third quarter performance and the outlook that we have for the fourth quarter, and take all things into consideration, for this year, in terms of our shipments on the cathode side, because of the volume growth that we have seen in the North American market and also a stronger market share within LG Energy Solution, we do think that shipments as a whole for the full year should increase by around 25%, YOY. However, on the ASP side, because of the significant drop in metal prices, we do think that the ASP for cathodes for the full year will be less by around 40% YOY. And as a result of that, the profitability should be slightly weaker than what we have seen last year. We'll be getting the last question. The last question is from the line of Taesung Yoon from Hana Securities. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you. There are two questions that I would like to ask you. The first is with regards to the cathode business in terms of your non-LGES related sales. I think that this is an area in which, since the second half of last year, that you have tried to continue to make efforts in. So, what type of progress has been made? And over the mid to longer term, what do you believe would be your target level for this area in terms of your non-captive customer? For the second question, I would like to ask about your life sciences business. You did mention during the presentation that the R&D expenses for life sciences have been increasing. How much does that represent? And in terms of the increasing R&D investments, until when do you think this trend will continue? So to talk about our plans on the non-captive side for cathodes, I think that as of the current time, if we look at the percentage that our non-captive customers account for, it would be a single digit type of level. However, this is something that we want to gradually expand over time. As you can see through various disclosures and also various press reports, there are orders and supply contracts that we have won with various OEMs and cell manufacturers. However, from the contract signing period to the actual supply time, it takes around one to two years in terms of the lead time that is required. We think that in terms of the full force of those efforts, it will be something that will start to come in from next year and more full in 2026. As we continue to expand our non-captive customer portion, the overall target would be to achieve a level of 30% or more in the year of 2028 or thereafter. So maybe I can address your question about the R&D size, investments that we have been making for our life sciences business. If we look at the overall R&D investments using the HQ numbers, it would be in the low 30% level. In terms of the reason for that, it continues to be that we do have various new clinical trials that are ongoing. So as a result, versus last year, there has been an increase of around KRW 70 billion. For the investments going forward, I do think that in light of our overall operating profit profile and the new drug pipeline for development that we have going forward, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and then make investments accordingly. With this, we would like to wrap up the earnings conference call that we have for the third quarter of twenty twenty-four. For those of you who have not had an opportunity to ask questions or may have additional follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact our IR team, and we would like to once again thank everyone who has taken time out of their busy schedule to be on today's call. Thank you very much.