Chip division continues to carry Samsung

Samsung has released its quarterly numbers, and while it is an improvement on the last quarter, the business is seemingly being propped up by a surging semiconductor unit.

Total revenues for the three months stood at roughly $57 billion, a 5.5% increase from the same period in 2017, while operating profit came in at roughly 15.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.9%. The earnings were largely in line with the expectations the management team floated a few weeks back.

“In the third quarter, operating profit reached a new quarterly high for the company driven mainly by the continued strength of the Memory Business,” the team said in a statement. “Total revenue increased YoY and QoQ on the back of strong sales of memory products and OLED panels.

“The Korean won remained weak against the US dollar, resulting in a positive QoQ effect of approximately KRW 800 billion, experienced mainly in the components businesses. However the Korean won rose against major emerging currencies, which weighed slightly on the set businesses.”

Looking at the individual business units, the chip team rose to the top of the rankings once again. Revenues came in at roughly $22 billion for the quarter, with profit standing at $12 billion. Although demand is set to be weaker for the next quarter, the team anticipate slight increases over the next twelve months as demand for public cloud market, and mobile storage expands.

With fingers pointing to increased competition, revenues fell in the IT & Mobile Communications with over smartphone shipments remaining flat due to a decrease in sales of mid- to low-end products. High promotional costs and fluctuating currencies have been blamed for a dip in profitability, with the division only contributing $1.9 billion, despite it claiming pretty much the same revenues as the chip boys.

Another unit worth keeping an eye on will be the Networks unit. While revenues were down year-on-year, owing to decreased investments in 4G and the 5G euphoria yet to kick in, Samsung does seem to be benefiting from the increased scrutiny placed on Huawei in recent months. With many telcos snubbing Huawei, or at least decreasing dependence on the vendor, Samsung could certainly take advantage.

With Huawei and Xiaomi offering a more sustained threat in markets where Samsung traditionally dominates, this might not be the end of the woes for the start-studded division of Samsung.