Myeong-seok Chae, Gounee Yang Global Economic News SAMSUNG Electronics saw its sales break the record last year. Samsung Electronics announced that it achieved 76 trillion won (US$64 billion) in sales and 13.8 trillion won in operating profit in the fourth quarter of last year. Samsung Electronics’ sales in the fourth quarter of last year are the highest quarterly sales since its foundation. The sales increased by 2.73 percent from 61.55 trillion won in the previous year. Samsung Electronics previously posted record high sales of 73.98 trillion won in the third quarter as well. The highest record was newly updated in just three months. In addition, operating profit also increased by 52.49 percent from 9.5 trillion won in the fourth quarter of last year. Due to an unpredicted surge in demand triggered by COVID-19, Samsung Electronics posted record high sales. Samsung Electronics’ annual sales last year were estimated at 279.4 trillion won. It increased by 17.83 percent from 236.81 trillion won in the previous year. It even surpassed Samsung Electronics’ previous highest sales of 243.77 trillion won in 2018. Compared to financial information provider FnGuide’s consensus, Samsung Electronics’ sales exceeded the forecast (276.3398 trillion won), but operating profit was lower than the forecast (52.686 trillion won). Due to semiconductor boom, Samsung Electronics’ sales and profits increased significantly last year. Initially, Samsung Electronics’ sales were expected to decrease as the memory chip DRAM market, the flagship business of Samsung Electronics, has been slow down in the fourth quarter of last year. However, demand for DRAMs remained stable until the end of the year. The operating profit of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division reportedly reached 30 trillion won. | 