By Jihoon Lee and Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) – Shares in Samsung Electronics (KS:), the world’s high reminiscence chip maker, fell on Wednesday to their lowest degree in additional than 4 years amid worries concerning the affect of U.S. tariffs underneath a brand new Donald Trump administration, analysts stated.
The South Korean tech large is the worst performing inventory amongst international chipmakers like TSMC and Nvidia (NASDAQ:) this yr, because it has lagged behind rivals in tapping booming demand for synthetic intelligence chips.
Trump’s potential tariffs on Chinese language imports are seen dealing a much bigger blow to Samsung, which has the next reliance on Chinese language clients than its native rival SK Hynix, stated Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Funding & Securities.
Hynix has been rising gross sales of high-end AI server chips to U.S. clients like Nvidia.
Trump has threatened to impose a common 10% tariff on imports and 60% on Chinese language items, which would scale back demand for electronics merchandise that use chips, stated Greg Noh, an analyst at Hyundai Motor (OTC:) Securities.
Final week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol additionally raised considerations that Trump’s menace of steep tariffs on Chinese language imports might immediate Chinese language rivals to slash export costs and undercut Korean chip companies abroad.
Samsung shares are down 34% within the year-to-date and on the right track to put up their worst annual efficiency in additional than twenty years. Shares in SK Hynix have risen 32% up to now this yr, and U.S. chipmaker Nvidia has gained 199%.
Samsung shares, South Korea’s most respected inventory, prolonged declines to a fourth straight session, down 2.1% as of 0126 GMT, after falling as a lot as 2.5% to 51,700 received, the bottom since June 24, 2020, whereas the broader market fell 1.5%.
SK Hynix rose as a lot as 2%, after falling for 2 consecutive classes.