Revenue likely rose 23% from the same period a year earlier to 76 trillion won, the company said in a short preliminary earnings release
South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics is likely to report a 52 percent jump in its operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2021. The surge was helped by solid demand for server memory chips and higher margins in chip contract manufacturing.
As per the company, this is the highest jump it has recorded for the quarter in four years. The world’s largest memory chip and smartphone maker estimated October-December profit at 13.8 trillion won ($11.5 billion).
Revenue likely rose 23% from the same period a year earlier to 76 trillion won, the company said in a short preliminary earnings release.
Although prices of memory chips dipped during the quarter, increased demand from server clients lifted Samsung’s quarter-on-quarter shipments of both DRAM chips, widely used in data centers, and NAND flash memory chips, used for data storage in tech devices, analysts said.
Samsung’s logic chip business, which includes chip contract manufacturing that competes with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), is also expected to post a jump in operating profit to above 1 trillion won in the December quarter due to more deliveries and higher prices, Hanwha Investment & Securities analyst Lee Soon-hak said.
Estimated smartphone shipments by Samsung’s mobile business were about 67 million, near 69.3 million in the previous quarter, Counterpoint Research said, helped by easing component shortages, although marketing costs weighed.
The business was recently merged into a single Device Experience (DX) division along with TV and home appliances.
