Samsung Electronics' profit surged in the first quarter of 2024, indicating an improvement in its chip business and strong sales of Galaxy S24 smartphones.
The world's largest memory chip maker reported an initial operating profit of about 6.6 trillion won (4.9 billion US dollars) on Friday, higher than analysts' estimates of 5.37 trillion won, and ended the quarterly decline that began in the third quarter of 2022.
Samsung Electronics' first-quarter revenue rose to approximately 71 trillion won, which is estimated at 71.8 trillion won. Samsung Electronics will release a full financial report with division segments later this month.
Samsung Electronics' performance highlights that demand for memory chips is recovering. South Korea's chip exports in March increased 35.7% year over year to US$11.7 billion, the highest level since March 2022.
Furthermore, the price of memory chips is also rising. Akshara Bassi, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that as inventory levels of products such as smartphones and personal computers returned to normal, major DRAM producers raised prices by an average of 7% to 10% in the first quarter.