Samsung Electronics announced its financial report for the first quarter of 2023 today, showing that its chip business suffered heavy losses, resulting in its lowest profit level in 14 years.
According to reports, affected by the global economic slowdown and sluggish customer consumption, the semiconductor market demand has dropped sharply, leading to a sharp drop in chip prices. Chip prices have fallen about 70% over the past nine months. Samsung Electronics and other smaller rivals have announced plans to cut chip production in response to the cold market.
Samsung Electronics stated that its operating profit in the first quarter of 2023 will be 640 billion won, a year-on-year decrease of 95%, the lowest level in 14 years. Operating income was 63.7 trillion won, a year-on-year decrease of 18%. Among them, the chip business suffered a loss of 4.58 trillion won, compared with a profit of 8.45 trillion won in the same period last year.
In the face of difficulties, Samsung Electronics stated that it expects the semiconductor market to gradually recover and global demand to rebound in the second half of the year, and will focus on high-capacity servers and mobile products. However, analysts believe that Samsung Electronics’ profit in the current quarter may be comparable to that in the first quarter before there is a fundamental recovery in equipment demand.
