Samsung is one of the biggest names in the electronics world, no matter how you look at it. Like any other company, of course, they have their ups and downs. While they are seeing some amazing figures in consumer electronics at the moment (thanks in part to the Galaxy S7 lineup), their components business, covering everything from memory chips to OLED screen panels, may not be doing quite so well. The same can be said of their battery business. With outside sales declining and their components business dropping departments like auto motors, some parts of Samsung’s business (like their battery creation arm), are posting sales figures in excess of half of their total sales for the quarter. Technically, depending on how the figures are calculated, this could mean some Samsung departments are actually doing worse off than their books may indicate.
The departments set to post net operating losses for the quarter include their battery arm and their LCD business, which was essentially sunsetted over the past few months in favor of OLED. There may be others, but these are the big ones that analysts are looking at for the possibility of dragging down Samsung’s total Q2 figures. The battery department in particular has been predicted by Hana Financial Investment to suffer an operating loss for the quarter of around 38.2 billion won. While the overall component business could be balanced out by stellar sales of NAND flash and OLED displays, these losses are still set to drag down what most analysts are saying could have been an otherwise stellar quarter.
Samsung is still set to do quite well for Q2 in general, leaving most estimates in the dust and essentially absorbing the blow from the operating losses within their component businesses. Between their mobile business, NAND and RAM chips, and their TV business, they could have absorbed a much bigger blow than what’s projected and still posted a decent quarter. Still, in any business, any element hemorrhaging money, no matter how little, should be addressed, and shareholders will likely be hoping to hear Samsung’s plans concerning these losses when the Q2 earnings are made official.