Samsung posts record loss in chip sector and smallest total profit since 2009

Samsung has announced its quarterly results. The company’s profit fell 95 percent from a year earlier and is the lowest in 14 years. This is mainly due to the chip sector, which suffered a record loss last quarter.

Samsung’s Device Solution division, which is responsible for chip production, booked last year 4.58 trillion won loss, which equates to approximately 3.10 billion euros. Those are according to Reuters the largest losses Samsung has ever suffered in this sector. In the first quarter of 2022, a profit of 5.7 billion euros was made in that branch.

Samsung attributes this decline to the fact that consumers and companies are spending less due to the current uncertain economic times. Earlier this month, the South Korean manufacturer announced that it would reduce production of memory chips ‘to a meaningful level’. Samsung expects demand to grow slightly again in the second quarter.

A total of 10.7 trillion won in investments was made last quarter. That is the highest amount Samsung has invested in a quarter, according to Reuters. 9.8 trillion of that was for the semiconductor market. The company managed to achieve a profit of 3.94 trillion won in the mobile sector, which Samsung credits to the success of the S23 series. That is a small growth compared to a year earlier, when this branch made a profit of 3.82 trillion won. In total, Samsung managed to achieve a profit of 638 billion won, or 431 million euros, in the past quarter, and a turnover of 43 billion euros.