Samsung expects strong third quarter growth

SEOUL (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. has said that profit likely surged in the third quarter on higher sales, amid a brightening outlook for the world’s largest manufacturer of computer memory chips and flat screen televisions.

The Suwon, South Korea-based corporation expects to record a consolidated operating profit of between 3.9 trillion won and 4.3 trillion won ($3.67 billion) for the three months ended Sept. 30, it said in a statement. Samsung recorded consolidated operating profit of 1.48 trillion won in the same period last year.

Samsung began issuing earnings estimates in the second quarter this year. The company began releasing consolidated operating profit and sales figures from the first quarter of last year, though does not release a consolidated net profit figure and offered no estimate.

Samsung’s highest operating profit on a consolidated basis so far was 2.57 trillion won recorded in the first quarter of 2008, according to company spokeswoman Lee Soo-jeong.

Lee said Samsung could not comment on reasons behind the expected third-quarter performance.

Analysts cited improving business conditions such as rising prices for memory chips and liquid crystal displays, and weakness in the Korean won against the Japanese yen as positive factors.

“Market share really jumped on all fronts — DRAM, flash, handsets, TVs, LCD panels,” said Jay Kim, who follows Samsung for Hyundai Securities in Seoul.

Samsung is the world’s largest manufacturer of DRAM, or dynamic ransom access memory, chips, NAND flash memory chips, flat screen televisions and liquid crystal displays. The company is the world’s second-largest maker of mobile phone handsets behind Finland’s Nokia Corp..

DRAM are used mostly in personal computers, while NAND flash chips are used in devices such as digital cameras and music players.

Samsung estimated consolidated sales of between 35 trillion won and 37 trillion won. That compares with sales of 30.3 trillion won a year earlier, according to the company.