SEOUL, July 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics saw its operating profit halve in the second quarter due mainly to one-off costs in the semiconductor business, the company said Thursday.
Consolidated operating profit tumbled 55.23 percent from a year earlier to 4.68 trillion won (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the April-June quarter, missing market expectations of about 5.9 trillion won (4.2 billion dollars).
Revenue grew 0.67 percent to 74.57 trillion won (53.6 billion dollars), but net income dropped 48.83 percent to 4.93 trillion won (3.5 billion dollars) in the second quarter.
The double-digit reduction in the profit was attributed to inventory value adjustments in the memory chip business and one-off costs related to the impact of export restrictions in the non-memory business, Samsung said.
Samsung's chip-making business recorded an operating profit of 400 billion won (287.6 million dollars) on revenue of 27.9 trillion won (20.1 billion dollars) in the second quarter.
The company proactively addressed robust server demand in the memory chip sector by expanding high-bandwidth memory 3E (HBM3E) sales and raising the proportion of high-density double data rate 5 (DDR5) products.
Samsung expected artificial intelligence (AI) demand to remain robust in the second half of this year amid continued investments by major cloud service providers.
The chipmaker planned to ramp up mass production of a new mobile system-on-a-chip (SoC) with the 2nm gate-all-around (GAA) process in its foundry business in the second half.
The display panel division achieved an operating profit of 500 billion won (359.5 million dollars) with revenue of 6.4 trillion won (4.6 billion dollars) in the April-June quarter.
Sales of mobile display panels increased on the back of new smartphones and the expansion of sales in the IT and automotive segments, while large display sales continued a growth in sales of QD-OLED monitor displays driven by robust demand in the gaming market.
The company forecast mobile display sales would rise in the second half on new smartphone launches, while seeking to maintain a stable supply of large display panels for TV.
The mobile phone and networks unit generated an operating profit of 3.1 trillion won (2.2 billion dollars) on revenue of 29.2 trillion won (21 billion dollars) in the second quarter.
Both revenue and operating profit advanced compared to the same quarter of last year through strong sales of the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy A series and Galaxy tablets.
Samsung planned to focus on the sales of foldables and the Galaxy S25 series in the second half while emphasizing the AI functionality of the Galaxy A series and reinforcing the AI capabilities of tablets and wearables.
The TV and home appliance business posted an operating profit of 200 billion won (143.8 million dollars) on revenue of 14.1 trillion won (10.1 billion dollars).
Sales of premium products improved in the second quarter, but earnings declined due to intensified competition.
The company planned to reinforce revenue growth in the second half by capturing peak-season demand with high-value-added TVs that have enhanced AI features. ■
