Anchor: Samsung Electronics set record highs in its sales, operating profit and net earnings in the third quarter on the continued “super cycle” of memory chips characterized by strong demand and tight supply.
Our Oh Soo-young breaks down the numbers.
 
Report: Samsung Electronics has recorded the biggest quarterly earnings seen in its 48-year history.
 
The South Korean tech giant on Tuesday reported that its July-to-September operating profit had almost tripled year-on-year, hitting 14-point-five trillion won, or roughly 12-point-nine billion U.S. dollars.
 
Total sales in the third quarter came to 62-point-05 trillion won, up 30 percent on-year.
 
The sharp growth was driven by strong returns from its chip business, which makes up two thirds of the firm's operating profits, at almost ten trillion won in the third quarter, up from three-point-four trillion won a year ago. 
 
Samsung's state-of-the-art 3D V-Nand technology along with higher demand for DRAM chips from Chinese mobile manufacturers are said to have pushed up the margin. 
 
Also, stronger sales of smartphones such as the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy J series carried the IT and mobile division, recovering from the Note 7 recall issue last year.  
 
Household appliances saw robust sales of premium products, as did the company's OLED panels, although profit in the display sector fell due to investment in new production lines.
 
Samsung expects to end the year with even bigger profits in the fourth quarter, as the company projects greater demand for high capacity memory chips and its OLED production to stabilize.
 
Local analysts say the chip division alone could amount to 12 trillion won in operating profit in the October to December period.
 
With earnings anticipated to stay on the up, Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it will bump up returns for shareholders.
 
This year's dividend payouts will be increased by 20 percent from a year ago, and the rate for 2018 will increase by 100 percent and keep steady through 2020.

Samsung Electronics shares ended the day at just over two-point-seven-five million won, up one-point-92 percent from the previous day.
Oh Soo-young, KBS World Radio News.