Samsung's 1Q operating profits to reach 9.9 trillion won

Samsung's 1Q operating profits to reach 9.9 trillion won. April. 08, 2017 08:18. by Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com.

Samsung Electronics’ operating profits are on the upswing. It is a dramatic turnaround from the worst crisis of Galaxy Note 7 battery explosions occurred in August last year.

According to the South Korean tech giant, it expects first-quarter sales of 50 trillion won with operating profits of 9.9 trillion won. This would be the second highest quarterly operating profit ever, following 10.16 trillion won earned in the third quarter of 2013.

Samsung posted a steep rise in operating profits, as its operating profits surged by 19.8 percent year-on-year, which is the largest ever figure. It is almost four times larger than the average operating profits of domestic manufacturers with 5.1 percent (as of 2015). Samsung is considered to completely overcome the trauma of halting production of its Galaxy Note7.

Once again, Samsung's semiconductor business was the best contributor of the rosy earnings. Although the performance of each business was not released yet, Samsung expected operating profits of semiconductor business will post record-high results of about 6 trillion won. The prospects for second quarter performance are also bright as the Galaxy S8 series will be officially released on April 21.

Experts view that the global semiconductor market has been stabilized in Super Cycle (longest boom). The financial sector forecasts Samsung’s second-quarter operating profits will exceed 12 trillion won.