The South Korean electronics giant expects growth to continue in the current quarter. It predicts sales for 2004 will rise 6.3% to KRW 46.34 trillion ($39bn) though most analysts regard this as conservative.
In the fourth quarter to December 31, net income rose 24% to KRW 1.86 trillion ($1.57bn) on revenue 22% higher at KRW 12.89 trillion (10.8bn). For the year, net income rose 102.7% to KRW 5.96tr ($5bn) on revenue 6.2% higher at KRW 43.58 trillion ($36.7bn).
Samsung’s success in areas such as memory where rivals have struggled is the result of hefty capital spending to lower costs of production and this will continue in 2004 with capital spending due to increase 17.5% to KRW 7.92 trillion ($6.7bn).
Samsung said fourth-quarter sales of flash memory chips leapt 24.2% over the previous three months to 82 million units, and flash accounted for 37% of memory sales.
Mobile handsets is the other area where Samsung is making huge progress and units shipped rose sequentially 4% to 15.5 million units with an average selling price of $190.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
