Samsung Electronics books record Q2 profit on chips boom

SEOUL — Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips and flat-screen televisions, reported record second-quarter profits Friday as revived global demand pushed up memory chip prices.South Korea's largest firm said consolidated net profit in April-June was at an all-time high of 4.28 trillion won (3.6 billion dollars), an 83 percent rise from a year earlier.Operating profit of 5.01 trillion won was also a record and up 88 percent from the second quarter of 2009. Revenue rose 17 percent to 37.89 trillion won.The stellar result was fuelled by renewed worldwide demand for personal computers and smartphones, which pushed up prices of key components such as memory chips and liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.Samsung's semiconductor business achieved 2.94 trillion won in operating profit in the second quarter, some 60 percent of the total, with a profit margin of 31 percent.The figure was almost eight times the 340 billion won operating profit posted a year earlier.Its LCD business recorded an operating profit of 880 billion won, a profit margin of 11.3 percent.Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker after Finland's Nokia, earned 630 billion won from mobile handsets and network business. The profit margin was a lower-than-expected 7.2 percent due to falling prices for regular mobile phones and promotional costs for new smartphone models.The company launched its Android-powered Galaxy S smartphone in late June to try to fend off growing competition from Apple's iPhone."In the second quarter, our component businesses performed very strongly, yet it was a more challenging quarter for our set businesses," Robert Yi, head of Samsung's investor relations team, said in a statement."With intensified competition throughout the digital media and mobile industries going forward, it may become a challenge to maintain current profitability levels."Yi said the company would stay focused on "introducing differentiated products and widening our technology leadership in components" t

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