Seoul, Sep 28 : Samsung is expected to report strong third-quarter earnings, analysts said on Monday, as its mainstay semiconductor business remained solid despite a decline in memory prices, while its mobile and home appliance sales soared on pent-up demand amid the pandemic. Samsung was projected to log $54.5 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit was estimated to surge 33.7 per cent (year-on-year) to $8.8 billion over the period, according to Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. Compared with the previous quarter, the estimated figure suggests Samsung is seeing a 20.7 per cent increase in sales and a 27.6 per cent jump in operating profit. Samsung, the world's leading memory chip and smartphone producer, is expected to announce its third-quarter earnings guidance next week. Samsung's Galaxy smartphone sales were estimated to be around 80 million units in the third quarter, about a 50 per cent increase from the previous quarter, while that of tablets reached 10 million units, roughly 45 percent higher than the second quarter, analysts added. Analysts predicted Samsung's chip business to post an operating profit of around 5 trillion won in the third quarter of the year. Analysts also predicted that Samsung's foundry business logged growth in the third quarter. The company reportedly secured orders from Qualcomm and Nvidia to manufacture their latest chips. Samsung's mobile business was tipped to see a big improvement in its earnings with increased smartphone sales and reduced marketing costs. Many analysts here predicted that Samsung's mobile business logged 4 trillion won in operating profit in the third quarter, more than double its second-quarter operating profit of 1.95 trillion won. Samsung's home appliance business was also tipped to get a boost from pent-up demand amid the pandemic-driven stay-at-home economy with a sharp increase in its TV sales. According to a recent report from market tracker Omdia, the global QLED TV market, led by Samsung, was projected to grow to 2.44 million units in the third quarter, up 83.9 percent from a year earlier. /IANS