Samjeon also couldn't avoid the 'semiconductor cold wave'... Reverse growth in 3 years

<Anchor> For

this reason, corporate report cards are also depressed.

Samsung Electronics, the No. 1 company by market capitalization in the domestic stock market, announced its third quarter earnings, but its operating profit fell by more than 30% from a year ago.

The biggest reason is the sharp decline in semiconductor sales.

Continuing to be reporter Jang Hoon-kyung.

<Reporter>

Apple's new smartphone, iPhone 14.

Apple is said to have withdrawn its original plan to increase production by 6 million units.

This is because of concerns about sluggish demand.

Global smartphone shipments fell 9% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year due to high inflation and the economic downturn, dropping to less than 300 million units in seven quarters.

Computers and tablet PCs, which saw a surge in sales during the corona virus, are also expected to grow negatively this year.

The sharp decline in IT product sales is leading to a decrease in demand for semiconductors, a major component.

[Yoon Ji-ho / Director of eBest Investment & Securities Research Center: The important thing is that demand is sluggish, but there is a lot of inventory.

The memory semiconductor price itself will not come down considerably...

.]

Enlarging an image

Samsung Electronics' operating profit in the third quarter was 10.8 trillion won, down 31.7% from a year ago due to the semiconductor cold wave.

This is the third year of negative growth.

Until the second quarter of last year, semiconductors accounted for 70% of Samsung Electronics' operating profit, but now the situation has changed.

The future is also dark.

The prevailing outlook is that semiconductor demand will continue to slow for some time due to the Ukraine war, China's blockade and inflation.

Micron, the largest memory semiconductor maker in the US, has announced a production cut.

Nvidia and Intel also recently lowered their earnings estimates, citing inventory adjustments.

Samsung Electronics also recently lowered its sales forecast for the second half of the year by more than 30% or 20 trillion won from the April forecast.

However, Samsung Electronics said, "It does not easily change the planned route," and said that it is not considering artificial production cuts.

(Video Edit: Eunjin Choi)

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<Anchor>

[Reporter Hoon-Kyung Jang: I had a conversation with a Samsung Electronics executive, and he said, "Semiconductor sales are not slowly getting worse, but are falling to the level of a vertical drop."

As electronic products are not selling, the price of semiconductors, Samsung's flagship product, is expected to decline sharply in the fourth quarter.

Many analysts predict that semiconductor performance will continue to deteriorate until the first quarter of next year.]

[Reporter Hoon-Kyung Jang: Yes, it seems that the U.S. Department of Commerce will announce tomorrow (8th) as early as tomorrow (8th) a measure not to sell U.S. semiconductor equipment to Chinese semiconductor companies.

Right now, there is a saying that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which have semiconductor factories in China, will be affected.

The current forecast is that exports to foreign companies that produce memory semiconductors in China are subject to separate examination on a case-by-case basis, and the possibility of approval is high.

It looks like our business won't be hit immediately.

However, if you increase production in China or introduce the latest equipment, something unexpected may happen because it is subject to strict screening.

The semiconductor industry is already bad, but uncertainty is growing, so it's a bad situation.]

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