From chipmaker Samsung to carmaker Hyundai, Korean companies get a boost from today’s womanish won, while rivals are much worse off

By Moon Ihlwan

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Could the shock wave roaring through the global auto and electronics industries exhibit lacking to the advantage of South Korean blue chips? The disquisition may sound off the mark while Samsung Electronics, Korea’session largest set and the world’session biggest maker of memory chips, liquid-crystal display panels, and TVs, posts its first quarterly loss this decade on Jan. 23. Hyundai Motor, the unrefined’s largest automaker, on Jan. 22 posted a sharp be discharged in its net profit since the three months to December.

Yet it becomes a real issue if you listen to what Korean executives have to say about the future. Despite aggregate the challenges brought by the foil recession from that time the Great Depression, "our tactics is to expand our global market share continuously," says Samsung Senior Vice-President Chi Young Cho. Announcing Samsung’s $16 million net injury with respect to the three months to December, other execs also spoke of "widening our opening with competitors" and "fortifying our leadership."

The reason: Rivals are much worse facing. While Samsung is posting its first loss since the company began releasing its quarterly results in 2000, all other memory chipmakers, for incitement, were in the red in previous quarters. Earlier this month, rival Nanya Technology, Taiwan’s No. 2 manufacturer of chips used for computer memory and given conditions storage according to fickle gizmos, reported its seventh following in a series quarterly loss. "If Samsung isn’t making profits, red ink will be up to their neck attached the side of others," says electronics analyst Lee Hak Moo at brokerage Mirae Asset Securities.

Price Advantages

A big cushion for Samsung and other Korean companies is the country’s weak currency. The telecom unit was the only business Samsung managed to keep in the black in the fourth quarter, and that’s principally because the Korean won lost 19% against the dollar and almost 26% against the euro upon the body an annual average basis in 2008. Helped by reward advantages gained from the weaker won, Samsung managed to sell some 200 million handsets last year, increasing its global market share by two percentage points, to 16%.

Despite the loss in the December quarter, Samsung has roomy cash enabling it to steer through the wrenching downturn. For all of 2008 it posted a net income of $4 billion, on sales of $52.5 billion. The joint concern also had a coin balance of some $5 billion at the end of last year. "The company isn’t likely to let up its aggressive marketing campaign for its consumer products," figures Michael Min, tech specialist at fund superintendent Tempis Capital Management. "I won’t be surprised if Samsung’s handset market share tops 20% in a couple of years."

Samsung’session market share attain is across the board. In spite of the slump in the reputation chip industry, where prices plunged more than 30% in the fourth quarter alone, Samsung’s global share for DRAM chips (used largely for computers) rose to well-nigh 30% in 2008, from 28% in the previous year, and Senior Vice-President Hong Wan Hoon at the chip unit expects that distribute to rise to between 33% and 35% this year. The concourse says it now controls some 26% of the global LCD TV market, up from 16% a year earlier.

Original text: http://rss.businessweek.com/~r/bw_rss/asiaindex/~3/521049441/gb20090123_858916.htm