Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chipmaker, said Friday that second-quarter profit fell 46 percent, largely due to a sharp drop in prices for computer chips, AP reported. The company, South Korea's biggest company by market capitalization, said it earned 1.69 trillion won (US$1.63 billion; euro1.35 billion) in the three months ended June 30, down from 3.13 trillion won (US$3 billion; euro2.5 billion ) in the same period a year earlier. The second-quarter result slightly exceeded expectations. A survey of 10 analysts by Dow Jones Newswires showed Samsung's profit would total 1.63 trillion won ($1.58 billion; euro1.3 billion). Prices for Samsung's mainstay businesses _ chips, mobile phones and liquid crystal displays used in computer monitors and televisions _ peaked in the first half of last year. Profit margins have since been eroded by a global oversupply of dynamic random access, or DRAM, chips and LCDs, and stiffer competition in the mobile phone business. Samsung said its average DRAM selling price fell by almost half during the quarter to the high US$3 level from the high US$6 level in the same period last year. «The decline in the DRAM chip price» was the main reason for the drop in profit, said Chang-won Chung, an analyst at Daewoo Securities in Seoul. The overabundance of supply «should diminish» in the second half, boosting prices and helping earnings the rest of the year, he said. --mor 1248 Local Time 0948 GMT
