Samsung Suffers Sharpest Drop in Sales
Samsung Electronics recorded the sharpest drop in sales in the first quarter of this year among the major semiconductor companies in the world. As a result, Samsung Electronics ranked second after Intel in the United States in semiconductor sales for the second consecutive quarter.
Total global semiconductor sales hit US$73.55 billion in the first quarter of this year, down 16 percent from US$87.82 billion in the same period of last year, said IC Insights, a global IT market research company on May 17.
Samsung Electronics came in second with sales of US$12.86 billion, down 34 percent from US$19.41 billion a year ago and the largest drop among the top 15 companies.
The first ranked company was Intel which focuses on non-memory semiconductors. Intel saw the smallest decline in sales among the top 10 companies with US$15.8 billion in sales, nearly the same as the US$15.83 billion last year.
Taiwan's TSMC, the third-largest chipmaker, posted US$7.1 billion in sales, down 16 percent from a year ago, while SK Hynix’s sales fell 26 percent to US$6.02 billion. Micron of the United States posted US$5.47 billion in sales, down 27 percent.