The South Korean company — one of the world’s largest makers of memory chips and smartphones — said in a statement that operating profit fell to 640 billion won — down 95 percent from a year earlier.Its first-quarter net income fell 86.1 percent to 1.57 trillion won, and sales dropped 18 percent to 63.75 trillion won.
Samsung also blamed weakening demand for memory chips — which usually generate about half of its profits — and falling chip prices.The firm’s chip division reported 4.58 trillion won in losses, its first operating loss since 2009 — when the world was emerging from the 2008 financial crisis. The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.The first-quarter drop is the third consecutive margin squeeze for Samsung, which saw a 70 percent fall in operating profits in the fourth quarter on-year.
But demand quickly diminished as lockdowns lifed and weakened further in the face of soaring inflation and rising interest rates.