- Electronics businesses all around the globe have been hit due to the coronavirus lockdown
- Samsung’s semiconductor business has picked up pace during 4Q 2019
Samsung Electronics, in an official statement, highlighted the possibility of the company beating its own operating profit expectations for Q1 2020. A report by Reuters pointed out that the Korea-based semiconductor maker was benefiting from increased demand for chips by data centres and laptop makers.
The company posted consolidated sales of approximately 55 trillion Korean won and operating profits of approximately 6.4 trillion Korean won.
Semiconductor demand rose during fourth quarter
Samsung has said that its semiconductor businesses had posted KRW 16.79 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 3.45 trillion in operating profit during the fourth quarter of 2019.
“The Memory Business saw solid market demand in the fourth quarter, led by growing demand from server customers. Demand for major applications like those related to 5G network expansions also contributed to gains. In the case of DRAM, server demand increase primarily centred on high-density products as datacenters, as well as customers in China, boosted orders as a result of new CPU adoption. For mobile, the growing sophistication of mid-to-high-end smartphones drove up content per handset in addition to positives linked to 5G network expansions. For PC, negative issues like a CPU shortage were offset by an increase in set-builds at OEM customers, keeping purchasing demand solid,” read Samsung’s official statement.
The Korea-based electronics giant had also forecast NAND prices to keep rising mainly on server demand as the market stabilizes during the January to March 2020 period.
Samsung’s display business panel business had posted KRW 8.05 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 0.22 trillion in operating profit for the fourth quarter 2019. Overall display earnings decreased QoQ due to weak performance across the business.
