When the chips are down, even the mighty take a battering. Samsung Electronics, Asia’s biggest technology group, yesterday published an 18 per cent year-on-year slump in operating profits at its semiconductor division. In the same second quarter Taiwan’s two biggest DRAM chip makers, Powerchip and Nanya Technology, plunged into the red.

Samsung’s more diversified business meant it pulled off a still-respectable – if below expectations – doubling of group operating profit to $1.9bn in the second quarter. There were a few pleasant surprises. Shrugging off falling panel prices, the LCD division achieved operating margins of 21 per cent, more than double those of the same quarter last year. Mobile handset sales fell quarter-on-quarter but more snazzy phones lifted average price. But weakness in semiconductors, responsible for a quarter of the group’s total sales, underlines the pain in the sector.