Samsung Electronics ended the year with the highest quarterly revenue in its history, driven by sales of smartphones and microchips. At the same time, it became the world’s leading chipmaker ahead of Intel.
Samsung has once again recorded a quarter of record sales over the last three months of 2021, achieving a turnover of 57 billion euros and 10.26 billion euros in profits. Over the whole year, the company recorded 208.26 billion euros in revenue for 38.44 billion euros in profits. This record was achieved in particular thanks to sales of semiconductors as well as its combined activities in the field of mobile telephony and consumer electronics, now called Mobile eXperience, which took full advantage of the Christmas holidays. Driven by the success of sales of its Fold and Flip ranges of foldable phones, as well as the Galaxy S series, Samsung recorded 21.51 billion euros in revenue for 1.97 billion euros in profit. The launch of its next flagship smartphone model on February 9 should allow it to continue to increase its sales at the start of the year.
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The semiconductor business (its largest division) continues to benefit from the global shortage that has hit the entire electronics industry since the shortage began to keep prices high. The company, which seized the title of the world’s largest chipmaker from Intel, saw its operating profit grow 52% year-on-year, despite supply chain issues which limited the production of RAM and flash storage. Samsung has made heavy investments in 2021 (nearly 32 billion euros) through the acquisition of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines to continue its expansion in the sector and meet the global demand that remains to this day. higher than the offer.
However, rising raw material and logistics costs affected margins in the consumer electronics division. According to Samsung, the COVID pandemic and the global shortage of supply are thus likely to continue to pose problems throughout the year 2022. “There are still several variables that could impact supply and demand this year, including the rate at which the parts supply issue will be resolved, the possibility of a further increase in commodity prices, and various risks. geopolitics“said Jinman Han, Executive Vice President of the Semiconductor Division.