(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Cho Seong-heum = Samsung Electronics recorded an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won in the third quarter of this year, opening the era of quarterly operating profit of 100 trillion won for the first time in Korean company history.
This is a record that no other company in the world other than Saudi Arabia's state-owned company Aramco has achieved.
Samsung Electronics reached the 100 trillion won mark after continuing its best performance streak for four consecutive quarters since the fourth quarter of last year thanks to the recovery of technological competitiveness amid the semiconductor boom.
Samsung Electronics announced on the 8th that its consolidated operating profit in the third quarter of this year was provisionally calculated to be KRW 107.4 trillion, an increase of 782.5% from the same period last year.
Sales amounted to 195 trillion won, an increase of 126.6% compared to the same period last year.
The operating profit ratio set an all-time high of 55.1%, which is unprecedented in the manufacturing industry.
This operating profit exceeded the market forecast of 105.7533 trillion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax by 1.6%.
This is the first time that a Korean company has exceeded 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit.
This is the first record even including global big tech companies such as Apple and Nvidia.
Only Saudi state-owned company Aramco recorded an operating profit of $86.5 billion (approximately 116 trillion won) in the second quarter of 2022 during the Ukraine war.
As a result, Samsung Electronics has been breaking new sales and operating profit records for four consecutive quarters since setting record highs of KRW 93.8 trillion in sales and KRW 20.1 trillion in operating profit in the fourth quarter of last year.
Operating profit in this one quarter alone was close to 2.5 times that of last year (KRW 43.6 trillion).
In addition, this is close to the combined operating profit (KRW 126.3 trillion) over the four years from 2022 (KRW 43.4 trillion), (KRW 6.6 trillion), 2024 (KRW 32.7 trillion), and 2025 (KRW 43.6 trillion).
As of the third quarter of this year, cumulative operating profit reached 254.1 trillion won, giving the green light to achieve 350 trillion won for the year.
Although performance by division and business unit was not disclosed on this day, it is analyzed that the semiconductor division (DS), especially the memory division, alone led the company's performance this quarter.
This is the result of the continued competition for global supremacy aimed at achieving general-purpose artificial intelligence (AGI, capable of performing like humans in all tasks), which has not dampened demand for memory.
The industry believes that the DS division will be similar to or slightly exceed the company's operating profit.
The industry is encouraged by the prediction that this trend will continue not only in the fourth quarter but also into next year.
Market research firm Trend Force predicted that general-purpose DRAM prices in the fourth quarter would rise by 10-15% and NAND prices by 15-20% compared to the previous quarter.
HBM4, which Samsung Electronics began mass producing for the first time in the world, is expected to contribute to performance improvement starting next year.
While Samsung Electronics' operating profit forecast for next year was formed at around 550 trillion won, Meritz Securities raised its forecast from 562 trillion won to 632 trillion won.
However, there are observations that the non-memory business divisions such as LSI and foundry within the DS division may have continued to have a deficit of around 1 trillion won.
Although business recovery is continuing with improved utilization rates, it is analyzed that the costs associated with operating the Taylor Fab in Texas, USA, may have been a burden.
The finished product (DX) division is also expected to have suffered its first deficit since its founding in the previous quarter for the second quarter due to the cost burden caused by a surge in component prices.
There is an estimate in the securities market that the mobile (MX) and network divisions may have recorded a deficit of around 1.5 trillion won.
The TV (VD) and home appliance (DA) divisions may also have recorded a deficit of around 500 billion won.
Samsung Display is estimated to have achieved operating profits of 1 trillion won, and Harman is estimated to have achieved operating profits of 200 to 400 billion won.
