Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. late today delivered another strong quarter, reporting an operating profit of 6.4 trillion won ($5.3 billion) for the first three months of the year.

The performance was better than expected, with analysts earlier forecasting an operating profit of 6.2 trillion won ($5.05 billion).

For the first quarter, Samsung reported total revenue of 52.4 trillion won ($42.8 billion), in line with its preliminary earnings forecast earlier this month. Sales grew by 5.6% year-over-year to 55.3 trillion won, but its net profit fell 3.2%, to 4.8 trillion won over the same period.

The company said its sales growth was driven by strong demand for its memory and server chips, which helped offset a slump in home appliance and display panel sales that it said was caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The semiconductor business also benefited from a steady rise in prices for memory chips, which are essential components of mobile devices such as smartphones.

Despite the strong performance, Samsung had words of caution for investors going forward, saying that it’s likely to suffer from the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Looking ahead to the second quarter, the company expects the memory business to remain solid, but overall earnings are likely to decline from the previous quarter because COVID-19 will significantly impact demand for several of its core products,” the company said in a statement.

Samsung said that it expects to see “robust” demand for its server and memory chips going forward as people continue to work from home. But it expects smartphone and TV sales to decline significantly, as COVID-19 has led to widespread store and factory closures across the world. Samsung said it will strengthen its online sales capabilities to try and counter this.

“In the second half, uncertainties driven by COVID-19 will persist as the duration and impact of the pandemic remain unknown,” Samsung said.

This year was supposed to be a strong one for the smartphone industry, which expected to benefit from new innovations such as faster 5G connections and foldable screens that have excited consumers again. But the coronavirus outbreak rapidly put an end to those hopes.

Smartphone shipments fell 38% in February, according to data from Strategy Analytics. Another research firm, CCS Insights, said earlier this month it’s expecting smartphone shipments to fall by 13% this year, to 1.57 billion units, which would be a 10-year low.

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