Samsung Electronics Breaks $10 Bil. in Chip Sales

Samsung Electronics posted semiconductor sales of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of the year, U.S. market research firm IC Insights said Friday.

Intel was the only other company among the world’s top 20 semiconductor makers to top 10 billion dollars between January and June.

Samsung ranked second in global chip sales with 11.18 billion dollars. Intel led with 17.49 billion dollars.

Samsung’s semiconductor revenue rose 21 percent from the same period last year, but the company’s rank remained the same. The chip giant’s combined revenue for the first half was 55.11 trillion won (55 billion dollars).

Texas Instruments was third with 6.36 billion dollars and Toshiba fourth with 5.84 billion dollars. TSMC of Taiwan ranked fifth with 5.66 billion dollars.

Korea’s No. 2 chip maker Hynix Semiconductor suffered a sales drop of 23 percent with 3.49 billion dollars in the first half, falling one notch to eighth in the world rankings.

Germany’s Qimonda and Japan’s Elpida dropped out of the top 20 due to worsening conditions in the DRAM and flash memory semiconductor market, IC said.

Samsung’s sales grew more than three times the market average, showing star players remain despite the bearish market, it said.

Samsung also showed good profitability. Hynix, Toshiba, Elpida and Qimonda all recorded deficits in the second quarter, but Samsung earned operating profit of 300 billion won (300 million dollars).

nex@donga.com