Samsung Electronics posts record quarterly sales in Q3

(Lee Chung-woo)

Samsung Electronics Co. achieved record quarterly sales in the third quarter of 2024, thanks to its mobile division’s strong performance. Its semiconductor division, however, posted weaker-than-expected operating profit of less than 4 trillion won ($2.9 billion), mainly due to one-off costs.

Samsung Electronics disclosed on Thursday that its operating profit stood at 9.18 trillion won for the third quarter, up 277.37 percent from the same period a year ago. Sales totaled 79.1 trillion won, up 17.35 percent during the same period. The amount surpassed the previous record set in the first quarter of 2022 at 77.78 trillion won, while net income rose 72.84 percent to 10.1 trillion won in the third quarter. The Device Solutions (DS) division, responsible for semiconductors, posted 3.86 trillion won in operating profit on sales of 29.27 trillion won.

Industry insiders projected earlier that the DS division would post an operating profit of about 4.2 trillion won for the third quarter but the actual figure was lower.

“Performance decreased due to a reduced reversal of inventory valuation loss compared to the previous quarter, one-off expenses such as the provision of incentives, and currency effects due to a weak dollar,” the company said.

Memory sales, however, totaled 22.3 trillion won, up 112 percent on year, driven by increased sales of high-value products such as HBM, DDR5, and server SSDs to meet AI and server demand. Foundry performance declined due to weaker-than-expected PC and mobile demand and one-time costs.

The Device eXperience (DX) division posted 3.37 trillion won in operating profit on sales of 44.99 trillion won in the third quarter. Mobile eXperience (MX), which is responsible for smartphones, saw growth in both sales and operating profit with new launches of smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices. The visual display business saw an increase in sales and operating profit by focusing on strategic products such as Neo QLED, OLED, and large TVs.

The home appliances segment also improved in the third quarter from 2023, with increased premium product sales, particularly in AI-enabled Bespoke products. Capital investment for the third quarter totaled 12.4 trillion won, up 300 billion won from the previous quarter. Of the entire amount, 10.7 trillion won was allocated to semiconductors and about 1 trillion won to displays.

Total annual capital expenditure is expected to reach about 56.7 trillion won this year, up 3.6 trillion won from a year ago. Research and development expenses hit a quarterly record of 8.87 trillion won.

Moving forward, Samsung Electronics is expected to focus on expanding sales of high-value products and securing technology leadership in the fourth quarter of 2024.

“While memory demand for mobile and PC may encounter softness, growth in AI will keep demand at robust levels,” the company said. “We will concentrate on driving sales- of HBM and high-density products.”