The South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics announced this Friday that it expects an operating profit of about 4.3 trillion won (about 3.4 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2022, which would mean 69% less year-on-year.
This figure would be the consequence of the fall in the prices of memory chips and the reduction in the demand for devices as a result of the economic slowdown, according to the forecast of results for October-December published today by the company.
Regarding its sales revenue, Samsung expects to add about 70 trillion won (about 55,000 million dollars), which represents a decrease of 8.6% compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year, the company detailed.
As is customary in its earnings forecasts, Samsung did not mention its net profit or break down data for its business branches in its earnings forecast report, which will be released in full by the end of the month.
Orders for the Suwon (south of Seoul)-based company’s main product, memory chips, are reported to have slowed as consumer purchasing power has weakened, causing reduced demand for chips from manufacturers of electronic products.
In turn, the rise in global inflation is expected to decrease the demand for products such as televisions or mobile phones.
The war in Ukraine, the policy that China maintained until recently of “zero covid” or inflation mean that the prospects for the end of last year are not good for Samsung, since sales of electronic devices will continue to fall globally, which which in turn promises to drag down the semiconductor industry.