Samsung Electronics' Top 5 Clients Include 2 Chinese Semiconductor Distribution Networks

Tektronix and Supreme Electronics Re-enter
Impact of Increased Smartphone Sales by Chinese Companies
First Quarter Inventory Assets at 53.3477 Trillion Won
3.3% Increase from End of Last Year

Among Samsung Electronics' top five customers, two are companies that supply semiconductors to China.

Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

According to the quarterly report disclosed by Samsung Electronics on the 16th, the top five customers in the first quarter were Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Hong Kong Techtronics, Supreme Electronics, and Verizon.

Compared to the end of last year, U.S. home appliance retailer Best Buy and U.S. semiconductor company Qualcomm were removed, while Hong Kong-based semiconductor distributor Techtronics and Taiwan-based semiconductor distributor Supreme Electronics re-entered the list. This is interpreted as the sales proportion of companies supplying semiconductors to China increasing due to the recent rise in smartphone sales by Chinese companies.

The sales proportion of the top five customers accounts for about 13% of total sales. Looking at the actual sales status by major regions (separate basis), the export sales proportion to China was 28.8%, slightly up from 24.8% at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics' consolidated inventory assets in the first quarter amounted to 53.3477 trillion KRW, an increase of about 3.3% compared to 51.6258 trillion KRW at the end of last year. Samsung Electronics explained, "The slight increase in net inventory in the Device Solutions (DS) division reflects the inclusion of inventory valuation allowances, and actual inventory has decreased mainly in memory semiconductors."