Samsung SDI Q4 profit below forecast on price falls

SEOUL Jan 26 (Reuters) - Samsung SDI Co Ltd (006400.KS) posted on Tuesday a slight fall in a quarterly operating profit, dented by higher depreciation costs from new production lines and price falls in rechargeable batteries.

The South Korean maker of lithium-ion batteries and plasma display panels (PDP) earned a 46.7 billion won ($40.6 million) operating profit in the quarter ended December, versus 51.2 billion won a year ago and 88.1 billion won in the third quarter to September.

The consolidated-basis result missed a forecast of 55.7 billion won from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Samsung SDI sells AM-OLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays and rechargeable batteries used in smartphones to Nokia (NOK1V.HE), Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and Apple (AAPL.O).

The company is expected to recover from a seasonally slow first quarter, buoyed by resilient demand from handset and PDP TV makers. ($1=1149.9 Won) (Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)