Samsung to cut chip production as profits plunge by 96%

Samsung has estimated its operating profit fell to 600bn won between January and March, from 14.12tn won a year earlier. Photograph: Idrees Abbas/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Samsung Electronics will cut back on chip production, as it faces a sharp decline in global demand for semiconductors that has sent prices plunging.

The world’s biggest memory chip maker said it would make a “meaningful” cut to chip output after sales dropped sharply and it flagged a 96% drop in first-quarter profits, worse than expected. The fellow South Korean firm SK Hynix and Micron Technology of the US have also reduced production.