Samsung Electronics Q3 net profit slumps 52% amid downturn in chip market

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone and memory chip maker, saw net profits slump by more than half in the third quarter, it said Thursday, amid a continued downturn in the global chip market.

Net profits in the three months to June were $5.40 billion, it said in a statement -- down 52 per cent year-on-year.

"Earnings from the Memory Business slumped significantly year-on-year as memory chip prices continued its downward trend," it said in a statement.

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as "chaebols" that dominate business in the world's 11th-largest economy.

But in recent months it has been battered by falling memory chip prices as global supply increases.

Samsung is also battling challenges from the US-China trade war and touch export restrictions imposed by Tokyo on key supplies amid a dispute with Seoul over wartime forced labour.

Last week a retrial began for its vice chairman Lee Jae-yong over a sprawling corruption scandal that could see him return to prison.