Samsung hits record quarterly profit on back of semiconductor business
Semiconductors are once again the profit engine for Samsung Electronics, which announced a second quarter operating profit of 14 trillion won on Thursday on revenue of 61 trillion, representing a 6 percent year-on-year increase in profit, and a 20 percent boost in revenue from the same time last year.
The company's previous quarterly record was 10.1 trillion won posted for the third quarter in 2013.
The clear standout business segment for Samsung was its semiconductor business, which increased its operating profit to 8 trillion won from 2.6 trillion won a year ago. Revenue for the semiconductor segment increased 46 percent year-on-year to 17.6 trillion won, the company said.
Samsung said the semiconductor business was driven by strong demand for server memory and SSD storage while industry supply is limited, and expects demand to continue for the rest of the year.
For the mobile business, revenue increased 11 percent to 29 trillion won but profit fell by 3 billion won to 4 trillion won.
The company said it saw increased global sales of its flagship Galaxy S8 handset, while its middle and low-end smartphone sales declined. The Korean behemoth also said it saw strong demand for LTE equipment from overseas customers.
In May, Samsung said it had sold over 5 million Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus units.
Looking forward, the company is expecting "solid sales" in its flagship S8 and new Note devices, but did warn its quarter-on-quarter profitability would fall due to increased marketing activity surrounding the new Note.
For its other business segments, consumer electronics was down 1 percent in sales, and 68 percent in profit; while its display panel business saw its profit jump to 1.7 trillion won from 0.14 trillion won a year ago, and its sales increase 20 percent to 7.7 trillion won.
Samsung said it has 54 trillion won in net cash, an 11 trillion won decrease from the same time last year.
In the previous quarter, Samsung posted 9.9 trillion won in profit, which at the time was the company's second best quarter ever.
The bulk of the Q1 profit was once again the semiconductor business, which contributed 6.32 trillion won.