SEOUL (BERNAMA) – Earnings forecasts for South Korea’s two largest chipmakers, Samsung Electronics Co and SK hynix Inc, for the fourth quarter have been revised down largely due to a downturn in industry demand, an industry survey showed yesterday, according to Yonhap News Agency.
According to the latest survey conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial arm of Yonhap News Agency, which polled 20 Korean brokerage houses, Samsung Electronics’ operating profit for the October-December period is estimated at KRW8.58 trillion (USD5.92 billion).
While the latest forecast is sharply higher than the KRW2.82 trillion recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, it represents a drop of over KRW1 trillion compared with the previous estimate of KRW9.77 trillion made in October and November.
Market observers said the deepening slump in demand for traditional information technology products, including smartphones and PCs, has contributed to prolonged weak profitability in Samsung’s core memory business.
SK hynix, with its strength in next-generation AI high-bandwidth memory (HBM), is expected to post its highest quarter-on-quarter results for the fourth quarter.
According to the latest Yonhap Infomax forecasts, SK hynix’s estimated operating profit for the cited period is KRW7.77 trillion, a 10.59-per cent increase compared with the previous quarter.
However, the estimate is a 4.16-per cent drop compared with the KRW8.11-trillion consensus estimated in October and November.
The observers said SK hynix has been defending its profitability with its high-value HBM products but has failed to avoid the impact of falling prices of general purpose memory.
