Samsung Q2 operating profit slides 95 per cent

SEOUL, July 27 (AFP): Samsung Electronics on Thursday reported a more than 95 per cent plunge in operating profits in the second quarter owing to weak demand for memory chips.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Operating profit from the April to June period was 668.5 billion won ($525.3 million), down from 14.1 trillion won a year earlier, Samsung said in a statement.
This marks the firm's worst quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2009.
Samsung's second-quarter net profit fell 84.5 per cent to 1.72 trillion won, and sales dropped 22.3 per cent to 60 trillion won.
The firm-one of the world's largest makers of memory chips and smartphones-blamed weak demand, but offered an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year.
"Global demand is expected to gradually recover in the second half of the year, which should lead to an improvement in earnings driven by the component business," it said, but added that "continued macroeconomic risks could prove to be a challenge".
Samsung's shares were trading 2.29 per cent higher on Thursday afternoon.
South Korean chipmakers, led by Samsung, enjoyed record profits in recent years as prices for their products soared, but the global economic slowdown has dealt a blow to memory chip sales.
Demand swelled during the pandemic as consumers bought computers and smartphones during lockdowns, prompting chipmakers to ramp up production.