Samsung Electronics posted its worst earnings in 15 years last year due to a global slump in the chip industry.

The tech giant estimated on Tuesday that its operating profit posted six-point-54 trillion won, or some four-point-99 billion U.S. dollars, in 2023, down 84-point-nine percent from a year earlier, while sales dropped 14-point-five percent from last year to total 258-point-16 trillion won.

The annual operating profit fell below ten trillion won for the first time in 15 years since posting six-point-03 trillion won in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

The drop is mainly due to the sluggish semiconductor sector, with the chip business logging a cumulative deficit of 12 trillion won in the first three quarters of last year.

For the fourth quarter, the operating profit posted two-point-eight trillion won, down 35 percent from a year earlier and about 30 percent lower than the average estimate by Yonhap Infomax, breaking a three-month streak of growth from the first quarter of 2023.

Sales marked 67 trillion won in the fourth quarter.