Samsung reportedly lost over 300 billion won (about $333 million CAD) after shutting down its Austin, Texas semiconductor plant for a month.
The number comes from Yonhap News, which notes that Han Seung-hoon, a senior vice president at Samsung’s foundry business, spoke about the loss on a conference call alongside Samsung’s latest earnings release. Seung-hoon explained that the shutdown impacted around 71,000 wafers. That corresponds to “around 300 to 400 billion won in damage.”
According to The Verge, Samsung had to shut down its Austin plant in February after a winter storm left thousands without power. The shutdown lasted for a month and was one of the longest periods Samsung has had to stop production at the factory.
Samsung says the factory returned to 90 percent production at the end of March and is now back to normal levels.
Despite the shutdown, Samsung’s profits exceeded expectations for the quarter. Net profit was up 46 percent to 7.1 trillion won (about $7.9 billion CAD) compared to the same time last year. Further, this was Samsung’s highest first-quarter profit since 2018. According to CNBC, that increase came from a 66 percent surge in profits at its mobile division.
It’s worth noting that Samsung’s foundry shutdown happened amidst an ongoing chip shortage impacting everything from GPUs to phones to cars. Samsung says the chip shortages have impacted its business and contributed to a drop in mobile display sales in the first quarter. Moreover, Samsung says the supply issues may continue into the second half of the year.
Source: Yonhap News Via: The Verge
