Samsung sees 2011 handset shipments up 18 percent: report

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, aims to boost handset shipments by 18 percent next year to 330 million units, a media report said on Tuesday.

Samsung sees its mobile phone shipments reaching 280 million units this year and next year's growth will far exceed industry forecasts' of around 300 million units, the Electronic Times Internet quoted an unnamed senior Samsung official as saying.

Samsung, which sold around 195 million units of mobile phones in the first nine months of this year, declined to comment on the report.

A senior Samsung official at the division said its shipments would exceed 300 million units next year but declined to elaborate further.

Expectations that robust sales of Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablets will help the smartphone laggard report solid earnings growth next year helped its shares rise to a record this week.

Samsung shares, Asia's most valuable stock with some $125 billion in market capitalization, closed up 1.2 percent on Tuesday, after hitting a record intra-day high of 921,000 won.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)