[Concall] Samsung Electronics "1Q Foundry Process Supply Shortage Expected... D-RAM Improvement Signal Observed"

Samsung Electronics achieved a record high performance with annual sales exceeding 279 trillion won. Samsung Electronics announced on the 7th that, based on its preliminary consolidated results for last year, it recorded sales of 279.04 trillion won and an operating profit of 51.57 trillion won. The photo shows the Seocho building of Samsung Electronics. Photo by Mun Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyeyoung] Samsung Electronics announced on the 27th through a conference call that "the foundry division achieved record-high sales due to the expansion of major suppliers," adding, "Through the confirmation of new fabs, efforts to stabilize the global supply chain and enhance advanced semiconductor responsiveness were made, but there were supply disruptions that could not meet all customer demands, and profitability slightly declined due to increased costs."

They continued, "A supply shortage across all processes is expected in the first quarter of this year," explaining, "The proportion of leading-edge processes, which significantly increased from the fourth quarter, will further rise, and we plan to focus on improving leading-edge process yields to stabilize customer demand." They also added, "The first-generation GAA process has been completed, and quality verification will be finalized for mass production in the first half of the year, and the second-generation 3nm GAA process will be developed according to the scheduled timeline."

Regarding DRAM, they stated, "Although some uncertainties remain in the first quarter, as uncertainties ease, improvement signals are observed in servers and PCs," and "Server demand is expected to remain solid with continued investment centered on data centers, increased capacity, and a sustained rise in the proportion of high-core CPUs."

On the NAND flash outlook, they explained, "Server SSD demand is expected to remain robust due to ongoing investments centered on data centers, but enterprise demand requires continuous monitoring amid the spread of variants."

For PCs, demand is improving mainly for enterprise and high-spec laptops, and with the increase in demand for advanced products such as DDR5 and the completion of inventory adjustments by some customers, the impact of the seasonal off-season is expected to be partially alleviated.

Mobile demand is expected to remain solid due to new product launches based on new form factors by major companies and the expansion of LPDDR. Samsung Electronics stated, "We will actively respond to customer demand across all applications and pursue the highest level in the qualitative aspect of our business portfolio through advanced node sales and expansion of high value-added products."

Regarding the annual outlook, Samsung Electronics said, "Server capacity is expected to continue growing due to the introduction of new CPUs supporting DDR5 and AI-oriented server expansion centered on data centers."