Affected by the sluggish semiconductor boom, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics initially estimated its full-year profit in 2023 to be only 6.54 trillion won (approximately US$4.95 billion), a 15-year low, a 84.92% drop from 2022.

Samsung Electronics announced preliminary data on Tuesday. Affected by the poor performance of the semiconductor department, Samsung Electronics’ full-year sales in 2023 were approximately 258.16 trillion won (approximately US$196.2 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 14.58%, and operating profits were 654 million won, a year-on-year decrease of 84.92%. %.

This is the first time since 2008 that Samsung Electronics’ annual profit has not reached 10 trillion won.

Among them, operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2023 was approximately 2.8 trillion won (approximately US$2.13 billion), a 35% decrease from 4.31 trillion won in the same period last year.

The figure was significantly lower than analysts expected. Analysts at London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Smart Estimate had forecast fourth-quarter profit of 3.7 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics has not released detailed profit figures for each division, but according to external assessments, the DS division, which is mainly responsible for the semiconductor business, has seen a recovery in shipments and average unit sales prices as the memory market recovers, and the profit deficit should be reduced.

Cory Johnson, chief market strategist at research firm Futurum Group, told CNBC that Samsung is good at manufacturing semiconductors, but its yield (yield) is much worse than TSMC, which may be a negative factor in declining profits.

“Such a bad yield can lead to a very bad bottom line,” Johnson said.

Korean brokerages speculate that Samsung Electronics’ DX division, which is responsible for mobile communications and home appliances, made a profit of about 2 to 3 trillion won in the fourth quarter of last year, and the panel division made about 2 trillion won.

Most brokerages believe that Samsung Electronics’ profit performance will continue to improve in 2024, with full-year profits expected to reach 35 trillion won.