A view of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Ultra smartphones.

Samsung Electronics chalked up 236.81 trillion won in sales and 35.99 trillion won in operating profit last year. The figure represented a 2.78 percent rise and a 29.62 percent jump over the previous year, respectively.

Samsung Electronics posted 61.55 trillion won in sales and 9.005 trillion won in 2020 Q4 on a consolidated basis. Sales for the fourth quarter declined 8.1 percent compared to the previous period as the competitiveness of set products and memory prices dropped.

Samsung Electronics saw its operating profit for 2020 Q4 decline 3.3 trillion won over the previous quarter and the ratio of operating profit to sales dropped to 14.7 percent. But compared to the previous year, the operating profit, and the ratio of operating profit to sales both rose on the back of the improving display and memory businesses.

The semiconductor business logged 18.18 trillion won and 3.85 trillion on in operating profit in 2020 Q4, respectively.

The memory business saw a strong rally in the mobile market during the fourth quarter of last year, and steady demand in the data center and PC markets.

Operating profit weakened due to a continued price drop, a weak dollar and the initial costs of new lines, however. The DRAM business for Q4 showed steady demand, influenced by the recovery of smartphone sales, expanding investments into data centers, a strong demand for PCs and the release of new GPUs.

The display business raked 9.96 trillion won in sales and 1.75 trillion won in operating profit in 2020 Q4. The business achieved the highest-ever quarterly business performance on the back of the recovery of demand for major items such as smartphones and TV sets.

The IT & mobile communications business posted 22.34 trillion won in sales and 2.42 trillion won in operating profit in 2020 Q4. The mobile market is expected to see a rising demand compared to the previous quarter due to the effects of the year-end high season and a steady market recovery.

The consumer electronics business logged 13.61 trillion won in sales and 820 billion won in operating profit in 2020 Q4.

The TV market expanded compared to the previous quarter on the back of a strong pent-up demand in advanced country markets during the year-end high season.

Models make a pitch for the latest Neo QLED TV set at Samsung Electronics Digital City in Suwon, south of Seoul, on Jan. 6. (Photos: Samsung Electronics)

By business, the semiconductor business attracted 32.9 trillion won, followed by the display business with 3.9 trillion won.

The memory business saw investments rise due to conversion of advanced processes and expansion designed to cope with a rise in future demand rise, while the foundry business saw a jump in investments into expanding of facilities such as the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) 5-nano process.