SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AP) – Samsung Electronics said yesterday its profit for the last quarter plummeted nearly 70 per cent as a weak global economy depressed demand for its consumer electronics products and computer memory chips.
The company’s operating profit of KRW4.3 trillion (USD3.5 billion) for the three months through December fell 69 per cent from a year earlier, representing its lowest quarterly profit since the third quarter of 2014. Revenue fell eight per cent to KRW70.46 trillion (USD57.2 billion).
The South Korean tech giant thrived through the first two years of the pandemic thanks to its dual strengths in parts and finished products, benefitting from robust demand for PCs, TVs and chips powering computer servers as the virus forced millions to work at home.
But it has been harder for the company to weather the economic shock following the war in Ukraine, which disrupted industrial supply chains and left major economies grappling with higher inflation and slower growth.
“The business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown,” Samsung said in a statement.
The company’s profit from its bread-and-butter semiconductor business came to KRW270 billion (USD219 million) for the last quarter, down significantly from the KRW8.83 trillion (USD7.1 billion) it got a year earlier.
Samsung said chip prices fell sharply amid weakened demand as clients adjusted their inventories in face of “deepening uncertainties” in the global economy, a problem the company says will likely extend into the first quarter of 2023.
