三星去年四季度利潤同比下跌8.5%

　　Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. posted an 8.5 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday on weaker shipments of flash memory chips and falling prices of flat screens and forecast a challenging first quarter.

　　The first part of 2007 looks bumpy as seasonally weak demand for NAND flash memory chips and flat panel screens will likely offset a strong showing from computer memory chips.

　　Samsung earned 2.346 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in net profit for the quarter ended December 31， against 2.563 trillion a year earlier and 2.187 trillion in the previous quarter.

　　Samsung’s net profit is likely to rise 16 percent to 9.2 trillion won from 7.93 trillion in 2006. That number would still be well short of 2004’s record 10.79 trillion.

　　Revenue came in at 15.69 trillion won， up from 15.52 trillion a year earlier.

　　Samsung saw the overall profit margin at its mainstay chips division rise to 31 percent from the third quarter’s 26 percent.But the South Korean firm was hurt by shipment growth of only 19 percent for its NAND flash chips， compared with general expectations for a 40 percent jump.

　　Samsung sold record 32 million mobile phones in the fourth quarter， up from the third quarter’s 30.7 million units. But profit margin in the handset division fell to 8 percent from 11 percent in the third as marketing costs doubled in what appears to be an increasingly difficult market.

　　Samsung’s liquid crystal display (LCD) business， with margins coming in at 10 percent against 13 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005. The margin， however， was double that in the preceding quarter due to seasonal factors.The company predicted slight falls in LCD selling prices in 2007 but said it didn’t expect excessive growth in LCD supply.

　　三星電子上周五公布了去年第四財季報告，由于閃存出貨低于預期、

　　NAND閃存及平板顯示器的季節性疲軟可能會抵消電腦內存的強勁，因此今年第一季度公司將面臨嚴峻形勢。

　　在去年12月31日結束的第四季度里，三星凈利潤為2.346萬億韓元（25億美元），前年同期為2.563萬億韓元，前一季度為2.187萬億韓元。

　　去年第四季度三星的銷售收入為15.69萬億韓元，高于前年同期的15.52萬億韓元。

　　作為主流業務芯片部門的利潤率從去年第三季度的26%提高到31%，但三星NAND閃存的出貨量只上升了19%，低于市場預期的40%。另外三星表示，今年第一季度DRAM芯片的價格可能會出現5%以上的跌幅，閃存價格可能下跌不到10%。

　　三星去年第四季度手機銷售量達到創紀錄的3200萬部，比去年第三季度的3070萬部有所增長，但利潤率卻從第三季度的11%下跌到8%。

　　另外三星去年第四季度LCD業務的利潤率為10%，兩倍于去年第三季度，但低于2005年同期的13%。公司預計2007年LCD的價格將出現小幅下跌，但不認為LCD的供應會出現大幅增長。