Samsung Electronics expects third-quarter profit grew 5.6 percent, as a pickup in chip and display earnings likely offset the impact of a global smartphone recall that has roiled the tech giant. The world's biggest smartphone maker said in a brief filing on Friday its operating profit for July-September was likely 7.8 trillion won ($7 billion). A year earlier operating profit was 7.4 trillion won.

The firm won't issue full results until late October and gave no details on the cost of recalling about 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones after batteries caught fire. Analysts have said the Note 7 woes - rumbling on with Wednesday reports of a smoking battery in a replacement device - could have undercut mobile earnings by at least 1 trillion won.

Revenue for the quarter likely fell 5.2 percent to 49 trillion won, the South Korean firm said.

Obviously the Note 7 recall costs were reflected but segments such as memory and OLED displays did well and will probably continue to do so until at least next year.

Second recall?

Samsung could face an unusual second recall of its Note 7 smartphones if one that caught fire aboard an airliner this week is a replacement device as its owner says.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission are investigating Wednesday’s incident, when a passenger’s phone emitted smoke on a Southwest Airlines Co. plane readying for departure from Louisville, Kentucky. A flight attendant doused it with a fire extinguisher, and the plane was evacuated without injury.

The South Korea-based company announced last month that it would replace all 2.5 million phones sold globally at that point. Samsung said it had uncovered the cause of the battery fires and that it was certain new phones wouldn’t have the same flaws.

The owner of the phone involved in Wednesday’s incident told investigators it was a replacement Note 7, said Captain Kevin Fletcher of the Louisville Metro Arson Squad.
Arson Squad

Samsung said in a statement Wednesday that it couldn’t confirm that the incident involved the new phone but would have more information after examining the device.