South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics revealed a likely 96% drop in second-quarter operating profit on Friday, as a prolonged chip oversupply causes big losses in its core sector despite a supply cut.
In a short preliminary earnings announcement, Samsung estimated its April-June operational profit plummeted to 600 billion won from 14.1 trillion won a year earlier.
Company records show that this would be Samsung’s lowest quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2009.
The electronics giant lost 4.58 trillion won in its chip division in the January-March quarter as memory chip prices plummeted and inventory values dropped.
Analysts foresee a slow recovery from last year’s memory chip downturn in the third quarter.
Samsung will reveal detailed profits on July 27.
