Seoul: South Korean Technology Giant Samsung Electronics said on Thursday the operating profit rose 53.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, because record sales help overcome the challenges of supply chain induced by a pandemic.
The world’s largest smartphone maker said the operating profit rose to 13.87 trillion won ($ 11.55 billion) for the October-December period in 2021, up from nine trillion won in the same quarter the previous year.
Thanks to the high price of memory chips and strong consumer demand, Samsung has the highest annual sales of 279.6 trillion won in 2021, soaring 18 percent from the previous year, the company said in the submission of regulations.
Samsung reaches “sales record thanks to competitive products, even though there is sustainable uncertainty,” said the technology giant in a statement, selecting a solid demand for its premium smartphone lane.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has brought Havoc in the global economy, he has helped many booming technology companies.
Pandemic-driven work from home has driven demand for devices powered by Samsung chips, as well as household appliances such as television and washing machines.
The world’s largest memory chip maker, Samsung Electronics has aggressively increasing investment in its semiconductor business as a world of chip fighting that has achieved everything from cars and household appliances to smartphones and game consoles.
The lack of global chip supply is expected to last until the new year, analysts say.
“In the memory business, demand is expected to grow as a company increasing investment while the company will expand the supply of high-performance products,” Samsung said.
In November Samsung announced a new microchip plant in Texas, an investment of $ 17 billion.
The factory is expected to operate at the end of 2024.
Samsung also invests in the development of advanced technology such as artificial intelligence and robotics, as well as 5G and 6G communication.
Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities, said that the price of memory chips is likely to decrease in the first half of 2022.
“Samsung’s advantage is likely to be dipped in the period of January-June.
But we also expect the price of the chip to turn around in the second round, Give encouragement to corporate profits, “he said.
“We have predicted around 10 percent of the decline in chip prices in the first months of 2022 but it seems now that the scope of decline will be smaller with solid demands for enhanced PC and supply chains.” Consumer demand for upscale products, such as folding phones, also helps to increase profits around the holiday season.
Samsung said it expects the smartphone and premium television market to grow in the third year of pandemic, although it anticipates “uncertainty triggered by Covid 19 problems and supply and logistics”.
The advantage of operations resulting from Samsung semiconductor business accounts for more than 63.7 percent of the total Q4, describing the main role played by the division in a broad group.
Samsung’s operating profit from the semiconductor division reached 8.8 trillion won for the October-December period.
Samsung Electronics is a superior subsidiary of Giant Samsung Group, so far is a family-controlled kingdom known as the Chaebols that dominated business in South Korea.
The overall turnover of the conglomerate is equivalent to about one-fifth of South Korea’s gross domestic product.
Samsung Electronics’s recording sales last year came as Lee Jae-yong, deputy chairman of the company and the de facto leader from a wider Samsung conglomerate, returning to management about parole from prison last August.
Lee has spent more than half a penalty of two and a half years for bribery, embezzlement and other violations in connection with a corruption scandal that reduced the former South Korean President Park Geun-hye before his release.
The return to management has eased concerns over decision making on Samsung.