[ad_1]
Samsung’s stock gained 1.7 per cent during early morning trade in Seoul on Friday.
The results underscore how the US$160 billion memory market is bouncing back this year from a severe post-Covid downturn, driven by a boom in data centres and AI development.
That demand pushed average memory chip prices 15 per cent higher from the previous quarter, CLSA estimates, helping Samsung’s largest division reverse year-earlier losses.
Both DRAM and NAND prices were lifted by demand for AI servers and enterprise data storage, helping to reverse inventory valuation losses, said Sanjeev Rana, an analyst at CLSA Securities Korea. Samsung’s foundry, or contract chip-making, operations also got a boost from improved IT demand, he said.
South Korea’s government said this week the country exported the most semiconductors on record in June, driving its trade surplus to US$8 billion – the largest since 2020.
Investors have become increasingly concerned about Samsung’s response to SK Hynix, which recently reported its fastest pace of revenue growth since at least 2010. That has propelled a roughly 60 per cent rally in SK Hynix shares since the start of 2024, compared with a gain of about 8 per cent for Samsung’s stock.
Samsung is unveiling results days before union organisers plan to stage a three-day walkout among its 28,000-plus members – including at key chip plants – over a pay dispute. The proposed action follows a strike involving a small number of staff last month that was the first in the company’s 55 years. It is unclear for now how many employees intend to participate in Monday’s walkout.
Longer term, Samsung’s focus remains on winning more business in AI memory, while at the same time allaying fears of oversupply.
Samsung in May unexpectedly named Jun Young Hyun – a memory chip veteran who is returning to the company after leading Samsung SDI – as the new leader of its most important business line, replacing Kyung Kye-hyun.
[ad_2]
Source link
