[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics said on July 27 that it posted 14.07 trillion won (US$12.66 billion) operating profit during the April-July period, up 73 percent from a year earlier, thanks to the robust growth of its semiconductor business.

Its revenue came in at 61 trillion won, up 20 percent from the same period last year. Samsung attributed the record quarterly operating profit and revenue to the increased sales of high-end components, such as DRAMs, solid-state drives, and OLED displays, as well as the strong sales of the Galaxy S8 and its large-screen variant Galaxy S8 Plus.

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Samsung’s chip business accounted for more than half of the total operating profit at 8.03 trillion won, while the chip division raked in 17.78 trillion won in sales.

The mobile division earned 4.06 trillion won operating profit with sales coming in at 30.01 trillion won.

The display unit posted 1.71 trillion won operating profit and 7.71 trillion won revenue while the consumer electronics division recorded 0.32 trillion won operating profit and 10.92 trillion won revenue.

The Korean tech behemoth said that high-end electronic components, such as 10-nanometer chip technology-based mobile processors, image sensors for dual-lens cameras and OLED panels, and mobile devices would contribute to the earnings growth in the coming months.

“The demand for memory chips is expected to further increase in the third quarter as the global mobile and server markets grow,” said an official from the firm, adding it would continue trying to ride the growth momentum by actively marketing the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 and investing in new production lines for semiconductors, such as 8-nanometer chips.

Regarding the earnings of Harman, which the company acquired late last year, Samsung said the US subsidiary earned US$200 million operating profit with sales reaching US$1.9 billion, but net operating profit stood at US$5 million due to the acquisition costs.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)