Live
- INDIA bloc’s Eda Sudhakar Reddy files papers
- NRIs deny they held secret meeting
- Changed political equations favour TDP in Nellore City
- Modi errs, jittery EC sends notice to Nadda
- New Delhi: LG postpones MCD mayoral polls
- MyVoice: Views of our readers 26th April 2024
- Measuring scavenging value of vultures
- Celebrating 107 Years of Osmania University: A Legacy of Academic Excellence
- Hate-hate relationship new trend in Indian politics
- Gadwal collector briefs on details of voters
Just In
Samsung Electronics, the worlds biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, reported a slump in fourthquarter net profits on Thursday, blaming a dropin demand for its key products Net profits in the OctoberDecember period were 846 trillion won 76 billion, it said, down 31 per cent yearonyear
Seoul: Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, reported a slump in fourth-quarter net profits on Thursday, blaming a drop-in demand for its key products. Net profits in the October-December period were 8.46 trillion won ($7.6 billion), it said, down 31 per cent year-on-year.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in the world's 11th-largest economy, and it is crucial to South Korea's economic health. It has enjoyed record profits in recent years despite a series of setbacks, including a humiliating recall and the jailing of its de facto chief.
But now the picture is changing, with chip prices falling as global supply increases and demand weakens. It also has to contend with increasingly tough competition in the smartphone market from Chinese rivals like Huawei - which surpassed Apple to take second place last year - offering quality devices at lower prices.
"Unfavourable business and macroeconomic factors led to slower performance in the final quarter," Samsung Electronics said in a statement, when "earnings were affected by a drop-in demand for memory chips used in data centres and smartphones."
It expected demand for chips to stay weak in the January-March period, "due to seasonality and macroeconomic uncertainties". Weakening overseas demand for memory chips - one of South Korea's key trade items - is bad news for its export-driven economy. Samsung's net profits fall comes as China's economic growth slows, exacerbated by a trade dispute with the United States. Samsung barely mentioned the Asian giant in its earnings statement but pointed to "global economic volatility" as a cause for "rapidly shrinking" chip demand.
The company's display businesses, it said, would be hit by "slow sales of premium smartphones", increasing competition, and "large-scale capacity expansions in the industry".
For the full year 2018, the firm reported record net profits of 44.3 trillion won, up 5.1 per cent year-on-year. But it projected overall earnings to fall this year, "due to weaker performance by the memory business". The net profit figure came in below analyst estimates, according to Bloomberg News.
© 2024 Hyderabad Media House Limited/The Hans India. All rights reserved. Powered by hocalwire.com