LG Chem Ltd. on Monday reported its third-quarter net profit of 1.01 trillion won (US$731.2 million), up 73.1 percent from a year earlier.Operating profit for the July-September period was 498.4 billion won, down 42.1 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales fell 6.1 percent to 12.67 trillion won.The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 156.6 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.Source: Yonhap News Agency