Top South Korean firms, including Samsung, fare worse than US counterparts in H1 2023

South Korea's major companies, including Samsung, performed far worse than their US counterparts in the first half of 2023 due to the sluggish chip and energy sectors amid a global economic slowdown, a report showed on Monday.

Samsung Electronics saw its sales, operating profit and net profit dip 21.5 per cent, 95.4 per cent and 86.9 per cent on-year, respectively.

Comparable figures of its US counterpart, Apple, dropped 4.2 per cent, 10 per cent and 9.2 per cent, reports Yonhap nNews Agency.

South Korea's top 100 non-financial firms listed on the main local bourse saw their combined sales edge up 0.3 per cent on-year to $746.3 billion in the January-June period, according to the report by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI).

In contrast, the combined top line of the 100 leading non-financial corporations traded on the New York Stock Exchange expanded 2.4 per cent on-year to $3.87 trillion.

A global business slowdown stemming from high interest rates and consumer prices hit South Korean companies harder than their US counterparts in terms of their earnings, said the FKI, the lobby of family-run conglomerates in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The combined operating profit of the Korean companies tumbled 63.4 per cent on-year to $24.8 billion won in the six-month period, while that of the US corporations shrank 3.9 per cent to $638.5 billion.

The bottom line of the Korean firms plunged 68 per cent year-on-year in the first half, while that of their US counterparts increased 3.2 per cent.

The federation said the performances of large South Korean corporations were affected badly by the worsened records of information technology and energy companies.

The total sales, operating income and net profit of South Korean IT, including chip, firms sank 21.5 per cent, 113 per cent and 109.4 per cent year-on-year, respectively, in the first half.

Yet, the respective figures of the US companies fell 0.3 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 4.4 per cent.