Samsung Vietnam sees 2018 profits plummet

By Dat Nguyen   March 12, 2019 | 08:22 pm PT
Samsung Vietnam sees 2018 profits plummet
Samsung Vietnam's 2018 profit dropped by 20 percent year-on-year. Photo by Reuters
Weak H2 business results dragged down profits for most Samsung Electronics subsidiaries in Vietnam last year.

Four Samsung subsidiaries in Vietnam recorded a total profit of $4.7 billion, down 20 percent from 2017, according to a recent financial statement issued by the South Korean corporation.

Samsung Ho Chi Minh City CE Complex (SEHC) was the only company to have its profit increase, posting a year-on-year surge of $30 million, or 10 percent.

Samsung Electronics Thai Nguyen, the corporation’s largest subsidiary in Vietnam, reported the steepest profit drop of all three companies at $820 million, or 30.6 percent.

Samsung Display Vietnam had its profit down by almost $200 million, or 18 percent.

Samsung Electronics Vietnam, also known as Samsung Bac Ninh, saw a profit fall of $150 million, or 8.5 percent.

Lower profits in the second half of last year led to the dismal figures.

Both Samsung Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen reported a second half profit of almost $900 million last year, a steep year-on-year drop of more than 50 percent.

Samsung Thai Nguyen saw its profit in the last quarter of 2018 fall to just $120 million, much lower than the $400-800 million recorded in previous years and the $1-billion peak in the second quarter of 2017.

In the last quarter of 2018, both Samsung Bac Ninh and Samsung HCMC CE Complex reported losses of $70 million and $80 million respectively.

The four companies reported a total profit of only $100 million in the last quarter of 2018, much lower than the $500-million profit in the third quarter of 2016 when Samsung had to recall its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones following reports of fires and explosions.

Samsung, the world’s biggest smartphone maker, is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam. It employs about 160,000 locals.

The corporation estimates that it exported goods worth $60 billion from Vietnam last year, up 12 percent over 2017, accounting for a quarter of Vietnam's total exports.

Samsung’s two factories in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen produce half of all the cellphones that the corporation supplies to the global market.

The four subsidiaries of Samsung in Vietnam earned total revenues of $67 billion last year, accounting for 30 percent of the corporation’s global revenue.

 
 
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