Lotte Chemical Corp. on Thursday reported its first-quarter net loss of 60.4 billion won (US$44.1 million), shifting from a profit of 225.2 billion won a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it continued to post an operating loss of 135.3 billion won for the January-March period, compared with a loss of 5.3 billion won a year earlier. Sales rose 0.9 percent to 5.08 trillion won. The loss was 41.1 percent lower than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. Source: Yonhap News Agency