Samsung's Q4 profits sink 38 percent y/y on memory chip slump

삼성전자, 전년대비 매출 5.48%↓ 영업이익 52.84%↓...4Q 영업익도 33.7%↓

Samsung Electronics continued to struggle towards the end of 2019.
The Korean tech giant's operating profits in the fourth quarter were down by a third, mainly due to decline in semi conductor sales.
Here's Hong Yoo with a breakdown of the figures.
Samsung Electronics' operating profits plunged in the fourth quarter of 2019 due to the weak memory chip business.
It recorded some 4-point-4 billion U.S. dollars of operating profits in the October to December period.
That's down 33-point-7 percent on year, but sales rose slightly over one percent.
Samsung's operating profit in 2019 as a whole slid almost 53 percent on-year to 23-point-5 billion dollars, the lowest since 2015.
The firm says that favorable sales of premium products attributed to the slight increase in sales but weak performance of memory chips led operating profits to fall by more than 3 billion dollars.
Semiconductor performance deteriorated due to lower DRAM prices.
In the display sector, profits from small-to-mid size displays slightly dropped due to lack of demand for certain premium products.
And abundant supply of large displays in the market also contributed to weaker display business performance.
But Samsung's mobile communication business improved thanks to better sales of flagship products and smartphone models such as the Galaxy A series.
Consumer electronics also showed better performance with better profits from sales of lifestyle appliances such as refrigerators, laundry machines and premium QLED TVs.
Still, the firm's performance does not look promising for the first quarter of this year.
Samsung says the semiconductor business expects a worse performance in the first quarter despite a steady demand for memory chips used in servers and mobile communications.
"We think that going into this year,…all depends on how fast 5G penetration will occur.
With the concern that's happening in China with coronavirus, I think that Samsung is downplaying when the level of demand will pick up."
But looking at the entire year, Samsung expects major businesses such as semiconductors to grow as the firm plans to strengthen technology leadership and normalize memory supplies in the first half of the year.
Hong Yoo, Arirang News.

#Samsung #Q4 technology