South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is set to top analysts’ projections for its earnings once again.

In a preliminary earnings forecast issued early Friday in Korea, the company said it’s expecting a greater than 50 percent jump in its fiscal first-quarter profit over a year ago. The company pegs its first-quarter operating profit at 15.6 trillion won ($14.7 billion), which is 58 percent higher than one year ago. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting an operating profit of 14.5 trillion won.

Samsung also said it expects to see total revenue in the quarter of 60 trillion won, up 19 percent from the first quarter of 2017. The company will report its full earnings performance later in April, when it will provide a detailed breakdown of its figures.

Analysts told Reuters that Samsung’s earnings were driven by the ongoing rally in the global memory chip market, which has seen record growth on the back of increased demand and reduced supply. The boom in Samsung’s memory business is so significant that it easily helped to offset a reported slowdown in the sales of smartphones components, analysts told Reuters.

Samsung’s memory chips accounted for about 70 percent of its operating profit, analysts said, even as observers warn that the industry may have already passed its peak growth phase. Reuters said Samsung earned as much as 10.7 trillion won from its semiconductor business thanks to growing demand for its dynamic random access memory chips, which helped to offset a decline in the price of flash memory chips. Samsung’s reportedly has an impressive profit margin, making about a 70-cents profit for every $1 worth of DRAM chips it sells.

The demand for memory chips means that Samsung can afford to shrug its shoulders at the reduced demand for smartphone components such as the organic light-emitting diode display screens it builds. Apple Inc. recently said it was reducing its purchase order for OLED panels from Samsung to just 60 to 65 percent of its original quota. That forced Samsung to cut its OLED panel shipments forecast, WitsView analyst Julian Lee told Reuters.

Samsung’s fortunes this year may also benefit from the launch of its new flagship smartphone the Galaxy S9. The research firm Strategy Analytics said it estimates the company shipped about 9.3 million S9 series handsets in the first quarter, adding that the reception from consumers appeared favorable.

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