South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics has finalized its earnings for the first quarter of 2019.<br />Its operating profits dropped to a low not seen since since the 3rd quarter of 2016.<br />The company's weak earnings were mainly due to the downturn in the global chip market.<br />Our Ko Roonhee reports. <br />Samsung Electronics' operating profits during the January-to-March period marked an over two-year low... mainly due to poor chip sales. <br />The company revealed on Tuesday that the figure marked around 5-point-36 billion U.S. dollars.<br />This is down more than 60-percent on-year...and more than 40-percent on-quarter.<br />Sales also slumped by more than 10-percent during the same period,... standing at around 45-billion dollars. <br />As for why, analysts point to weak memory chip earnings. <br />Chip prices have been falling...mainly due to oversupply and lower demand.<br />The average price of DRAM chips fell more than 20-percent in the January-to-March period, compared to the previous quarter. <br />In addition, many IT companies have been postponing investment or clearing stocks...as part of a 'wait-and-see' approach for chip prices to go down even further. <br />Because operating profits in the chip market account for around two-thirds of the South Korean tech giant's total profits, this directly affected Samsung's overall earnings.<br />Display panels suffered a loss for the first time since the 1st quarter of 2016.<br />This was mainly due to lower prices of LCD panels and fewer shipments of OLED panels. <br />Operating profits for Samsung's IT and Mobile communications, including smartphones, marked a 50-percent increase compared to the previous quarter...thanks to the popularity of the Galaxy S10.<br />Meanwhile, to turn things around, Samsung announced earlier that it will venture into other sectors outside the memory field.<br />The firm plans to invest around 116 billion U.S. dollars in its system-on-chips business through 2030.<br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
