SEOUL, April 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's tech behemoth Samsung Electronics saw its operating profit surge in the first quarter thanks to strong sales of memory semiconductors and smartphones, the company said Tuesday.

Samsung's consolidated operating profit amounted to 6.61 trillion won (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, more than 10 folds larger than 640.2 billion won (464.8 million dollars) in the same quarter of last year.

Revenue advanced 12.8 percent over the year to 71.92 trillion won (52.2 billion dollars) in the first quarter, marking the second-highest first-quarter revenue in the company's history.

Net income more than quadrupled to 6.75 trillion won (4.9 billion dollars) in the first quarter from 1.57 trillion won (1.1 billion dollars) a year earlier.

The positive earnings came from the higher price of memory chips and the robust sale of flagship smartphones as well as the local currency's depreciation versus major currencies, Samsung noted.

The chip-making business recorded an operating profit of 1.91 trillion won (1.4 billion dollars) on revenue of 23.14 trillion won (16.8 billion dollars) in the first quarter.

The semiconductor business returned to profit in five quarters on the back of demand for high value-added products such as HBM, DDR5 and server SSD.

Samsung started the mass production of HBM3E 8H and V9 NAND this month, planning to mass produce HBM3E 12H products within the second quarter.

The company expected the chip industry to remain solid in the second quarter, led mainly by demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Samsung's display panel unit posted an operating profit of 340 billion won (247 million dollars) on revenue of 5.39 trillion won (3.9 billion dollars) in the January-March quarter.

Earnings from mobile panels declined owing to an intensifying competition, while the large panel business narrowed losses following the release of new QD-OLED monitor products.

The mobile panels sale was forecast to increase in the second quarter with the launch of new foldable phones and stronger demand for IT products.

The mobile phone and networks business generated an operating profit of 3.51 trillion won (2.5 billion dollars) on revenue of 33.53 trillion won (24.3 billion dollars).

The mobile business achieved solid earnings in the first quarter thanks to the robust sales of its flagship Galaxy S24 smartphone series, but smartphone demand was predicted to decrease in the second quarter for seasonality.

The TV and home appliance division logged an operating profit of 530 billion won (384.8 million dollars) on revenue of 13.48 trillion won (9.8 billion dollars).

The TV business recorded a higher profitability in the first quarter on the sale of premium products, but the overall TV demand was projected to remain weak in the second quarter due to lower TV demand in emerging markets.

Samsung's capital expenditure in the first quarter totaled 11.3 trillion won (8.2 billion dollars), including 9.7 trillion won (7 billion dollars) on the semiconductor division and 1.1 trillion won (798.7 million dollars) on the display panel unit. Enditem

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