SEOUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's tech behemoth Samsung Electronics saw operating profit plummeting by 60 percent in the first quarter on the worsened businesses of memory chip and display panel.
The preliminary figure for operating profit was 6.2 trillion won (5.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, down 60.4 percent compared with 15.64 trillion won (13.8 billion U.S. dollars) tallied a year earlier, Samsung said in a statement.
Revenue declined 14.1 percent over the year to 52 trillion won (45.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the March quarter.
Samsung's operating profit missed market expectations of about 7.1 trillion won (6.3 billion U.S. dollars) on average. It was the lowest in 10 quarters since the third quarter of 2016.
Samsung's first-quarter net income and detailed earnings of its businesses would be unveiled later this month after an external audit and the approval by the board of directors.
Samsung said in a regulatory filing last week that its first-quarter earnings would miss market consensus amid the worsened business environment for memory chip and display panel.
Market watchers estimated the operating profit of Samsung's chip-making unit at around 4 trillion won (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, sharply falling from 11.5 trillion won (10.1 billion U.S. dollars) recorded a year earlier.
Amidst the lower semiconductor price, the slump in the chip-making business was already forecast. In addition, the seasonal weakness in chip demand contributed to double-digit price falls in DRAM and NAND flash memory chips in the first quarter from the previous quarter.
Samsung's display panel unit was estimated to have posted an operating loss between 400 billion won (352 million U.S. dollars) and 700 billion won (616 million U.S. dollars) in the March quarter.
Price for liquid crystal display (LCD) panels declined on supply glut, while demand for flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) weakened on the weak sale of Apple's iPhones.
The IT & Mobile business, which makes smartphone, was estimated to have made an operating profit of about 2.5 trillion won (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter on brisk sale of its new flagship Galaxy S10 smartphones.
It was down from 3.8 trillion won (3.3 billion U.S. dollars) of operating profit tallied a year earlier, but it was sharply up compared with 1.4 trillion won (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) of profit in the previous quarter.
Operating profit of the consumer electronics unit, which makes refrigerators and washing machines, was estimated at 500 billion won (440 million U.S. dollars) to 600 billion won (530 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter.
It was up from 300 billion won (265 million U.S. dollars) recorded a year earlier.
In the main bourse, shares of Samsung Electronics moved in a narrow range bobbing in and out the negative terrain as the company heralded a lower-than-expected operating profit last week.
Experts here forecast that Samsung's earnings could rebound in the second quarter despite the lingering concerns that if the semiconductor business environment remains worsened, earnings could slump further.
