See Bold below, 50% increase in CapEx Samsung post record profit and Pledges to boost investment
Friday April 19, 1:44 PM
sg.biz.yahoo.com
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics reported a record first-quarter net profit on Friday on better chip prices and handset sales, prompting South Korea's largest company to announce it would boost spending on plants and facilities.
In the latest sign that the semiconductor chip market is turning around, Samsung <05930> posted 1.9 trillion won ($1.46 billion) in first-quarter net profit, up 53 percent from 1.24 trillion won in the same period a year ago.
"The contract (chip) prices are higher than spot prices because demand that we are experiencing in the contract market is very strong," said Chu Woo-sik, Samsung's vice president at investors relations told analysts at a conference call.
Samsung, the world's largest computer memory chipmaker, said it had sold DRAM chips used in personal computers at an average of $4.5 in the first quarter.
Samsung expected chip price recovery will be limited in the second quarter as the PC market is not yet in full recovery and chip supply will increase led by its competitors.
"(But) we plan to increase our capital expenditure by 1.5 trillion won to 4.55 trillion won this year as we expect rapid recovery in PC market in the second half," said Chu.
Of the planned investment, four trillion won will be spent for semiconductor division which includes DRAM, flash, SRAM and flat panels.
Samsung shares, South Korea's largest stock by market capitalisation with a weighting of some 17 percent in the benchmark index, dropped 5,000 won to 401,500 won at 0451 GMT. |
