SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday its fourth-quarter operating profit was expected to fall 35 percent amid prolonged weak demand for its semiconductors and televisions, lower than expected.
In a brief preliminary statement on its quarterly results, the world’s largest chip and smartphone maker estimates that its operating profit for the October-December period stood at 2.8 trillion won ($2.13 billion), compared to 4.31 trillion won a year earlier.
However, this would be the smallest annual decline in its profit for five quarters.
Samsung plans to report detailed quarterly results on January 31.
A rebound in demand for semiconductors is expected this year, following a rise in prices in the last quarter of 2023 fueled by a drop in production – a trend that is expected to continue.
(Report by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang; French version Jean Terzian)
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