Seoul, Aug 24 (IANS): Samsung Electronics expanded its dominance in the global DRAM market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed on Tuesday, thanks to bullish demand and chip price hikes.

The South Korean tech giant registered a 43.6 percent share of the global DRAM flash market in terms of revenue in the April-June period, up 1.6 percentage points from a quarter earlier, according to market tracker TrendForce.

Samsung's revenue came to US$10.51 billion in the second quarter, up 30.2 percent from a quarter earlier.

Its growth was above the industry average of 25.6 percent in the second quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

With higher-than-expected DRAM shipments and rising prices, global DRAM revenue reached $24.1 billion in the second quarter.

"On the demand side, buyers showed an increased willingness to expand DRAM procurement because they anticipated that prices will rise even further," TrendForce said.

"In addition, frequent shortages of various semiconductor components this year drove buyers to stock up on DRAM ahead of time so as to avoid potential manufacturing bottlenecks due to low DRAM inventory."

Another South Korean chipmaker, SK hynix Inc., kept the runner-up spot with a market share of 27.9 percent, down 1.1 percentage points from a quarter ago.

But its revenue increased 20.8 percent on-quarter to $6.72 billion.

Samsung saw its operating profit margin going up to 46 percent in the second quarter, up from 34 percent in the first quarter.