By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung Electronics posted a record operating profit in the three months to June, powered by robust sales of Galaxy smartphones and a rising demand for computer memory chips.
Its operating profit reached 6.7 trillion won ($5.9 billion) in the second quarter, up 80 percent from a year earlier, the largest-ever quarterly operating profit in its history, the company said Friday. Its sales stood at 47 trillion won, up 20 percent.
``It’s no surprise that Samsung set a new record in operating profit. The company’s IT and Mobile division were the best performers in the latest quarter,’’ said Noh Geun-chang, a senior analyst from HMC Investment. He said 4.4 trillion won of the operating profit came from these divisions.
The world’s biggest phone-making company sold around 100 million phones, including 50 million smartphones. It sold over 7 million Galaxy S3s, which were released in late May, Samsung officials said.
``With today’s bullish numbers, any concern about Samsung’s business, as well as overall demand for technology products, can be put to rest for now, at least,’’ said Brian Park, an analyst from Tong Yang Securities.
By business division, the semiconductor unit recorded 1.1 trillion won in operating profit on sales of 9.5 trillion won.
The impressive performance came a few days after the company announced it was adopting an emergency mode approach to better cope with fallout from the deepening eurozone economic crisis.
``Despite many challenging factors, our profit has improved. In particular, our profit margin reached 14.3 percent,’’ said a high-ranking executive by phone.
Another senior official from the company’s memory chip division said, “Conditions are improving. The benchmark price for DRAM chips is rising, though a fall in price for NAND flash chips for use in high-end devices has been larger than expected.’’
The company said that its LCD panel business turned around in the latest quarter for the first time in 18 months thanks to the soaring demand for OLED displays for use in Galaxy tablets and smartphones.
With strong sales of smartphones, Samsung’s corporate brand image is strengthening.
It has emerged as the ``most valued brand’’ by consumers in Asia, beating Sony and Apple, according to a survey by research firms Nielsen and Campaign Asia-Pacific.
``Samsung’s focus on high visibility marketing and advertising, as well as its commitment to developing brand presence in both new and mature markets has helped give its brand a boost,’’ said Jolene Otremba, editor at Campaign Asia-Pacific.
Samsung has been fighting patent battles related to mobile-phone technology and design for more than a year with Apple, also the company’s largest customer. Apple won a U.S. court order on June 29 to block sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, the first smartphone to use Google’s Android 4.0 operating system.
``But any final ban will take several months at least. That means Samsung can boost profits throughout this year,’’ said Song Myeong-sup, an analyst at Hi Investment, expecting the operating profit for the third quarter to be close to 8 trillion won.
Song said Apple’s upcoming products including the mini iPad and iPhone 5 will spur Samsung’s component-making business.