Samsung Announces First Quarter 2023 Earnings: Both revenue and profit fell

At the beginning of this month, Samsung issued its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2023, sounding the alarm once again. Samsung anticipates a 19% year-on-year decline in revenue and a staggering 95.8% decrease in operating profit, falling below one trillion Korean won for the first time in 14 years. Contrary to its stance in previous months, Samsung has indicated that it will adjust the production volume of its memory chips.

Today, Samsung finally released its financial report for the first quarter of 2023, revealing revenues of 63.75 trillion Korean won, an 18% year-on-year decrease from 77.78 trillion won in the same period last year. This figure also falls short of the previous quarter’s revenue of 70.46 trillion won, marking a 10% drop. Additionally, the operating profit plummeted by 95% to 640.2 billion Korean won, reaching its lowest point in 14 years. Samsung attributes these results to an uncertain global macroeconomic environment and a slowdown in overall consumer spending.

It is worth noting that Samsung’s semiconductor division suffered heavy losses, with a deficit of 4.58 trillion Korean won in the first quarter of 2023. Comparatively, the profit during the same period last year amounted to 8.45 trillion Korean won, exacerbating market concerns about a downturn in the technology sector. Samsung stated that the significant decline in the performance of its memory business compared to the previous quarter resulted from ongoing inventory adjustments and a decrease in overall demand. The company anticipates that the market demand for semiconductors will gradually recover in the second half of 2023, a view that aligns with that of SK Hynix.