Weak sales of Smartphones, but, above all, a slump in demand for memory chips, is now the South Korean company Samsung Electronics. The operating profit decreased in the last quarter of the Year to 28.7 per cent compared to the previous year, reported Samsung on Tuesday in a preliminary estimate. It is the first quarter is minus since the late summer of 2016, as Samsung had to take to start selling because of the inherent fire risks the former top model Galaxy Note 7 from the market.
Patrick Welter
a correspondent for Economics and policy in Japan, based in Tokyo.
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The worse result of the biggest manufacturer of electronic memory chips and Smartphones, reinforces the Concerns about a slowdown in the world economy. Last week, Apple had startled with a downward revision of its business expectations for the last quarter of 2018 investors.
no improvement
Samsung estimates operating profit for the period from October to December 2018 to 10.8 trillion Won (€8.4 billion). The turnover is expected to reach 59 trillion Won (EUR 46 billion), a 10.6 percent less than the prior-year quarter. Final results and the Details will be publish Samsung until the end of January.
In an unexpected step Samsung added to the preliminary quarter of a verbal Declaration at the numbers, apparently to dampen speculation. The company explained the decline in profits with an unexpectedly weak demand for memory chips for data servers, the led in comparison to the previous quarter to lower deliveries and to an unexpectedly strong decline in the average selling prices. In the strong competition on the market for Smartphones would have cost in addition, higher sales, and a “flat” sales volume down the profit in the business area.
