PREVIEW-Asia chipmakers set for Q2 bloodbath

* What: Asia chip makers' Q2 earnings

* When: Powerchip, Nanya (July 23), Qimonda (24), Samsung Elec (25), Toshiba (29), Hynix (31), Elpida (Aug 7)

* Big losses seen as memory downturn continues, but Samsung helped by non-chip businesses

By Marie-France Han

SEOUL, July 22 (Reuters) - Asian memory chip makers are set to post steep second-quarter losses as an 18-month supply glut shows no sign of easing, though top-ranked Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) will be shielded by earnings from its screen and mobile phone businesses.

Makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), used mainly in personal computers, have been left reeling by a lengthy slump in prices that show no sign yet of fully recovering.

Contract prices of some DRAM chips have risen about 30 percent this year, but that is well short of making up for big losses in 2007, when some prices slumped more than 90 percent.

"The DRAM industry is going to bleed until the first quarter of 2009," said Peter Yu, an analyst at BNP Paribas.

Prices of NAND flash chips, used in portable electronic gadgets, have fallen steeply this past quarter, with analysts noting a 20 percent drop last month alone.

South Korea's Samsung, the world's top maker of memory chips, alone, is expected to post higher second-quarter profit, with a resilient semiconductor business and robust flat-screen and mobile phone earnings set to push up net profit by 60 percent from a year ago.

Analysts expect an operating profit margin of 6-7 percent at Samsung's semiconductor division, helped by rising commodity DRAM prices and technological advances that allow more chips to be made from the same wafer. The profit margin was 8 percent a year ago, well down from 31 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Profit margins at Samsung's liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and mobile phone units should be 21 and 13 percent, respectively, as a weaker won currency has kept its products competitive despite a global economic slowdown.

But the world leader faces a steep and earlier-than-expected downturn in the LCD market, slowing sales of high-end mobile phones and continued weakness in chips. BNP predicts Samsung's LCD earnings will drop by more than two-thirds next year.

RIVALS REELING

Things are tougher still for Hynix Semiconductor Inc (000660.KS), the world's No.2 memory chip maker, which is set to swing to a quarterly net loss, though this should be less than its 505 billion won loss in the first quarter.

For the full year, Hynix is forecast to post a net loss of 479 billion won, a far cry from a 2 trillion won profit only two years ago, during a DRAM boom.