Samsung Electronics Co expects strong demand and cost cuts to boost second-half profit in its chip business, it said yesterday.
The profit margin for its NAND flash memory chips -- used in digital consumer products like cameras and music players -- is rising sharply, while that for DRAM, or dynamic random access memory chips used in personal computers, is increasing moderately, the company said in material prepared for a CLSA-sponsored investor relations meetings in Hong Kong.
Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips, expects the global NAND market to be more favorable in the first half of next year as a result of strong demand for high-density music phones and video MP3 players.
Samsung sees also a strong increase in shipments of its flat-panel TVs in the third quarter of this year and "even better" performance in the fourth.
Sales this year of liquid crystal display televisions are expected to double on year to 12 million units, it said.
Samsung reported in July that its net profit in the quarter to June 30 fell 5 percent from a year ago on price declines for computer chips. But it said then as well that a rebound in the market would bolster earnings.
Samsung earned 1.42 trillion won (US$1.55 billion) in the second quarter, the company said in the July earnings report. Sales rose 3.7 percent during the quarter from the same period last year.
Separately, Samsung partnered with six companies including Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and Royal Philips Electronics NV to share patents for digital TVs.
Under the agreement that expires at the end of 2016, the companies will share patents related to the US TV standard, Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said yesterday in a regulatory filing. Members selling TVs using the technology will pay royalty fees of US$5 a set and share the pooled funds, it said.
The other partners sharing patents on the technology, used in digital TVs sold in the US, South Korea, Mexico and Canada, are Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Scientific-Atlanta Inc, LG Electronics Inc and Zenith Electronics Corp, the statement said.
Samsung joined the agreement to reduce the risk of patent-related disputes over its digital TVs, spokesman Kwak Bum-joon said by telephone in Seoul.
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