Samsung forecast beats market expectations for first quarter

SEOUL

Samsung Electronics on Thursday posted highest ever figures for its first quarter sales forecast and said it predicted a better-than-expected performance for profits, beating market expectations.

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The tech giant said in a regulatory filing that its January-March operating profits were expected to rise to 6.6 trillion won ($4.5 billion), down 0.15 percent from a year earlier but up nearly 2  percent on the previous quarter.

This was almost 34 percent higher than the average estimate.

Sales were also seen increasing to 79 trillion won, a near 10 percent jump from a year earlier, marking the highest first-quarter figure on record and the second-highest quarterly revenue ever.

The company did not disclose its net income or the detailed earnings of its business divisions.

Analysts credit the high figures to record sales of the new Galaxy S25 series phone, which was released in February.

The gadget became the fastest ever Galaxy device to reach one million units sold in the shortest time, within 21 days.

The revenue and sales growth was due to strong demand for server DRAM, mostly used in data centres, which offset slowing prices for more conventional high-end chips, TrendForce analyst Tom Hsu told AFP.

There was "strong purchase momentum" from some U.S. and Chinese cloud service providers, who were investing in their data centers, he said.

But "with the U.S. government imposing substantial tariffs, leading to a potential for economic uncertainties", demand is likely to fall, which could hit future prices, he added.