Observer Report
Seoul
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone and memory chip maker, saw net profits slump by more than half in the third quarter, it said Thursday, hit by an enduring downturn in the global chip market.
Net profits in the three months to June were 6.29 trillion won ($5.40 billion), it said in a statement—down 52 percent year-on-year.
“Earnings from the memory business slumped significantly year-on-year as memory chip prices continued its downward trend,” the company said. The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as “chaebols” that dominate business in the world’s 11th-largest economy.
But in recent months it has been battered by falling chip prices as global supply increases. Samsung also faces challenges from the US-China trade war and tough export restrictions imposed by Tokyo on key supplies as part of a dispute with Seoul over wartime forced labour.
The South Korean tech titan leads the global smartphone market with a 23 percent share, trailed by Chinese competitors Huawei and Oppo, with Apple in fourth place.
