Samsung Electronics Q4 profit plummets amid global chip downturn

Nikkei Asia ^

[FarCenter]

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics said Tuesday that operating profit plunged in the fourth quarter of last year, as global economic headwinds snuffed out demand for semiconductors and smartphones -- the company's two key revenue sources.

The South Korean tech company said that its operating profit came in at 4.3 trillion won ($3.5 billion) for the three months through December, a decline of 69% from the same period the year before and the worst result since the third quarter of 2014.

Revenue stood at 70.5 trillion won for the same period, marking a fall of 8%.

The figures were in line with earnings guidance the company announced earlier this month.

Net profit, for which the company does not issue guidance, was 23.8 trillion won, up 120% from a year ago thanks to a one-time corporate tax issue.

The overall poor performance by the world's biggest maker of memory chips and smartphones comes as the South Korean economy contracted 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022 from the third quarter of the year, the lowest growth in two-and-a-half years. It was largely due to low shipments of semiconductors, the country's top export item, and underscored broader problems in the global market for the key components.

[BenLurkin]

Are not chips in demand for high tech weapons?

Maybe their sales force needs to look for new markets?

[Ken522]

This is most unfortunate - Samsung just developed a 200 mega-pixel sensor to put in cell phones for greater photographic capabilities!

[seowulf]

I’m not sure I have any use for a camera that good.

I don’t plan on taking pictures of my house from orbit.

[aimhigh]

I love and hate my Samsung phone. Great quality build. But the continual addition of untouchable crapware is intolerable.

[FarCenter]

>>>Are not chips in demand for high tech weapons?

Compared with smartphones, high tech weapons a produced in very low numbers.

High tech weapons require parts that are mil spec qualified, which have wider environmental tolerances, vibration, shock, etc. requirements.

High tech weapons have a long development and procurement time.

So no, high tech weapons generally aren’t using very many chips, and the chips they use are produced on old semiconductor fab lines.

[Zathras]

Outside of IBM, Samsung’s clients are mostly Samsung.

[TexasGunLover]

Samsung’s clients are mostly Samsung.

They build most of the iPhone components like the screens... they use their own screen's from 5 years ago for the new iPhones, thus why the margins are so high on iPhones.

[DAC21]

“Samsung’s clients are mostly Samsung”

Yep. but interestingly enough they are having issues with design and manufacturing their own high-end Solution On a Chip (SOC) for their flagship phones. For their Galaxy S line they use Qualcomm chips exclusively for the new upcoming S23. Prior years they were using their own exynos SOC for much of the world except the USA. Samsung was making the Qualcomm SOC’s in their own foundry but had issues with performance and yields. They have now farmed much of that production out to Taiwan’s TSMC foundry.

[minnesota_bound]

AMD will report on Wednesday..... I hope it is good.

[TexasGunLover]

For their Galaxy S line they use Qualcomm chips exclusively for the new upcoming S23.

Correct, worldwide rather than just their normal domestic runs. To be fair, a few years back, the Exynos chips had some advantages that have been negated by the last few Qualcomm generations.