Samsung Electronics on Wednesday said it recorded an operating profit of about 15.2 trillion Korean won ($14.15 billion) for the quarter ending in December, which was in line with guidance. That was a 64.3 percent jump from a year earlier.

The firm’s fourth-quarter revenue came in at about 66 trillion won, a 23.7 percent on-year increase. For the full year, Samsung recorded an operating profit of nearly 54 trillion won on revenue of about 240 trillion won.

The South Korean tech giant said its fourth-quarter earnings were driven by strong demand for its memory chips that are used for servers and mobile storage. The semiconductor business recorded an operating profit of nearly 11 trillion won for the quarter.

Indeed, earlier this year, research firm Gartner said preliminary results showed Samsung leapfrogged Intel to become the world’s top semiconductor supplier last year. Samsung’s market share in 2017 was 14.6 percent and Intel had 13.8 percent of the market, according to Gartner.

Samsung’s earnings from its mobile business declined in the quarter due to higher marketing costs. Fourth-quarter operating profit for the mobile division came in at 2.42 trillion won, lower than the 2.5 trillion seen a year earlier.

The firm said smartphone sales for its low-end models declined. Indeed, recent data showed that Samsung was pushed out of the pole position last quarter from the Indian smartphone market, where it sells many of those low-end models.

Overall, Samsung pointed to the earnings guidance released in January and said operating profit was affected by a stronger Korean won against the dollar and other major currencies. The firm added that a one-off incentive paid to employees in the semiconductor business also had an impact on earnings.

For the current quarter that will on end of Mar. 31, Samsung said strong demand for its memory chips that are used in data centers would likely offset weak seasonal demand. The upcoming launches of new flagship mobile devices, such as the Galaxy S9, are expected to improve earnings, the firm said.

Source: cnbc china
Samsung posts record fourth-quarter profit