Despite the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, Samsung Electronics posted record-breaking sales thanks to the boom in semiconductors.



In particular, Samsung Electronics recorded more than 94 trillion won in sales in the semiconductor sector last year, surpassing Intel in the US to become the world's number one in semiconductor sales for the first time in three years.



Samsung Electronics announced today (27th) that its operating profit for last year on a consolidated basis was 5,1633.9 billion won, up 43.45% from the previous year.



Sales increased by 18.07% year-on-year to KRW 279.648 trillion.



Samsung Electronics' annual sales are at an all-time high.



Operating profit is the highest since 2018 (58.89 trillion won) during the semiconductor super boom, and the third highest in history.



In the fourth quarter alone, operating profit was 13.86 trillion won, up 53.28% from the same period last year.



Sales and net profit for the same quarter were 76,565.5 billion won and 10.838 trillion won, respectively.



The number one contributor to last year's strong performance is undoubtedly the semiconductor.




The semiconductor sector posted sales of 94.16 trillion won last year.



Intel also announced this morning that it posted annual revenue of $79.02 billion last year.



Applying the won-dollar exchange rate (1,187.5 won) as of December 25, last year, which is Intel's accounting deadline, it was about 93.8 trillion won, and Samsung Electronics surpassed Intel by a slight margin.



Samsung Electronics ranked first in semiconductor sales in 2018, but remained in second place for two years in a row after giving up the top spot to Intel in 2019.



Samsung Electronics' semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter were 26.10 trillion won and operating profit was 8.84 trillion won, respectively.



In the fourth quarter, the average selling price (ASP) decreased slightly, resulting in a slight decrease in performance compared to the previous quarter.



The smartphone and network business (formerly the IM division) recorded 28.9 trillion won in sales and 2.6 trillion won in operating profit in the fourth quarter, respectively.



The consumer electronics division (formerly CE division) recorded sales of 15.35 trillion won and operating profit of 700 billion won in the fourth quarter.



Samsung Electronics invested about 48.2 trillion won in facilities last year.



By business, semiconductors amounted to 43.6 trillion won and display 2.6 trillion won.



(Photo = Yonhap News)