Samsung posts 7 trillion won operating profit in Q3

The Q3 operating profit of Samsung Electronics reached the mark of 7 trillion won for the first time this year thanks to strong smartphone sales. Since its historic 10.8 trillion won record in fourth quarter of last year, Samsung’s quarterly operating profit struggled this year, hovering around 6 trillion won.

On Thursday, Samsung Electronics announced that its operating profit for the third quarter was tallied at 7.78 trillion won. It is down 55.7% from the record high in Q3 last year, but also a remarkable increase by 17.9% from the previous quarter. Experts say that while the semi-conductor market still remains in doldrums, the South Korean electronics giant managed to recover thanks to a surge in the smartphone sales.

The revenues for Q3, which stands at 62 trillion won, up 10.47% from the second quarter, has returned to 60 trillion range for the first time in four quarters. At 12.5%, the operating profit ratio has also improved from Q2’s 11.8%.

“We sold 85 billion smartphones and 5 million tablet devices in Q3,” Samsung Electronics said in a conference call on Thursday. “The average selling price was 230 dollars (270,000 won).” However, the prospect of smartphone sales for Q4 is not optimistic. The company expects that the smartphone sales will marginally fall against increasing marketing costs in Q4, which will make a dent in its operating profit in the last quarter of the year.


Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com