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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] Samsung Electronics posted a deficit of more than KRW 2 trillion in its semiconductor business in the fourth quarter of last year, with its annual semiconductor deficit reaching nearly KRW 15 trillion.
However, as the memory business recovered, the semiconductor deficit decreased by more than 1.5 trillion won compared to the previous quarter, and DRAM succeeded in turning to a surplus in a year.
Samsung Electronics announced on the 31st that its operating profit was KRW 6.567 trillion last year on a consolidated basis, down 84.86% from the previous year. It is the first time in 15 years that Samsung Electronics' annual operating profit has fallen below KRW 10 trillion since the global financial crisis (KRW 6.319 trillion in 2008). Annual sales fell 14.33% year-on-year to 258.9355 trillion won. Net profit fell 72.17 percent to 15.4871 trillion won.
Operating profit in the fourth quarter of last year was 2.8247 trillion won, down 34.4% from a year earlier. Sales and net profit for the fourth quarter were 67.7799 trillion won and 6.3448 trillion won, respectively. In terms of fourth-quarter earnings, the device solution (DS) division in charge of the semiconductor business recorded sales of 21.69 trillion won and operating loss of 2.18 trillion won.
As the effect of memory reduction began in earnest, the price decline stopped, and the deficit decreased significantly compared to the previous quarter. However, including the deficit in the first and third quarters of last year, the semiconductor deficit over the past year is worth 14.88 trillion won. As customer inventory normalized, memory showed a recovery in overall demand as memory capacity of PCs and mobile products increased and demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI) servers increased.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
