South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to set another record in operating profit in the fourth quarter, securities firms’ estimates showed Tuesday, due mainly to its robust sales of memory chips.

Data from 25 securities firms projected Samsung Electronics’ operating profit at 10.5 trillion won ($10 billion) for the October-December period, according to market researcher FnGuide, up 3.5 percent from the previous record of 10.1 trillion won posted three months earlier.

Brokerage houses based their rosy outlook on Samsung’s strong memory chip business, expected to gain ground from the rising chip price and demand in the global market.

“Samsung is expected to experience a huge gain in its semiconductor sector for the fourth quarter, backed by the rising price of and demand for chips, as well as a recovery in the system LSI business,” Lee Jeong, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities Co., said.

LSI, or large-scale integration, a system used in mobile phones and TVs with tens of thousands of transistors per chip.

“Samsung’s brisk performance in the smartphone sector is also a plus factor for its improved earnings (in the fourth quarter),” Lee added.

Samsung posted the biggest global market share of 32.1 percent among other rivals including Apple Inc. by selling 80.3 million smartphones in the third quarter, according to a separate data by market researcher Gartner Inc.

The world’s largest smartphone maker has been expanding its foothold in the global market through a strong demand for its Galaxy smartphone line-up. (Yonhap News)