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Samsung Electronics, South Korea's tech behemoth, hit a new quarterly high in the third-quarter earnings thanks mainly to brisk sales of semiconductors.
Operating profit reached a fresh high of 14.53 trillion won (12.94 billion U.S. dollars) in the July-September quarter, almost tripling 5.2 trillion won tallied in the same period of last year.
The reading surpassed the previous high of 14.07 trillion won registered in the previous quarter.
Revenue and net income also topped previous records. Revenue advanced 29.8 percent from a year earlier to 62.05 trillion won in the third quarter, keeping a record-breaking trend.
Net income amounted to 11.19 trillion won in the quarter, more than doubling 4.54 trillion won tallied a year earlier.
The ratio of operating profit to revenue jumped 12.5 percentage points over the year to 23.4 percent in the quarter.
The record-breaking earnings were led by the overperformance in the semiconductor division, which accounted for about two-thirds of Samsung's total profit.
The chip-making unit logged an operating profit of 9.96 trillion won in the September quarter, continuing to grew from 6.31 trillion won in the first quarter to 8.03 trillion won in the second quarter. The third-quarter figure nearly tripled a profit of 3.47 trillion won a year ago.
The chip-making unit's revenue surged 51 percent to 19.91 trillion won, sending the chip division's ratio of operating profit to revenue to almost 50 percent.
The robust chip sales were attributable to the seasonally-high chip demand, the brisk sales of high-capacity products and higher prices, caused by supply shortage in the global market.
The IT and mobile business, which makes smartphones, recorded an operating profit of 3.29 trillion won on revenue of 27.69 trillion won. The earnings reduced compared with the previous quarter due to the higher portion of sales in low-priced smartphones.
Samsung's mobile phone sales increased to 97 million units in the third quarter from 93 million in the prior quarter. The portion of smartphones sales was in the mid-80 percent.
The display panel business posted an operating profit of 970 billion won on revenue of 8.28 trillion won in the third quarter. The revenue increased on demand for flexible OLED panels, but the profit fell from three months earlier on increased produce lines.
The consumer electronics unit, which makes TVs and home appliances, registered an operating profit of 440 billion won on revenue of 11.13 trillion won.
The unit's earnings declined as higher flat panel prices offset an increased sale of premium TVs, the company said.
Market watchers forecast Samsung's record-breaking earnings trend would last in the fourth quarter on expectations for strong demand for high-capacity memory chips used in smartphones.
Concerns also remained about Samsung's future beyond the fourth quarter as the company's profit was excessively concentrated on the semiconductor business.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
