Samsung’s mobile division has reportedly asked suppliers to reduce smartphone deliveries by up to 30% in the fourth quarter of 2026 as surging DRAM prices threaten profit margins.
Samsung is reportedly preparing to trim smartphone production in the fourth quarter of 2026, a sign that rising memory prices are squeezing margins across its mobile business. Reports from several technology outlets said the company’s Mobile eXperience division has asked suppliers to cut deliveries by roughly 20% to 30%, although this appears to be a supplier-side indication rather than an officially announced corporate plan. The move is understood to be aimed at protecting profitability rather than pursuing growth at any cost.
The pressure comes primarily from DRAM costs, which have risen sharply as demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure has absorbed more of the market’s memory output. According to figures cited by TrendForce in the reports, a 12GB LPDDR5X configuration cost about $145 to $146 in the second quarter of 2026, up 175% from a year earlier. Some reports further suggest that prices could climb towards $180 in the third quarter, adding still more strain to handset economics.
That matters because smartphone manufacturing depends heavily on memory, and higher component prices can quickly erode the return on each device sold. AndroidCentral reported that Samsung is seeking to absorb the cost shock by lowering production rather than passing the burden on to buyers through sharper price rises. In that reading, the cuts are less about weakening demand and more about preserving margins in a business where profitability has become harder to sustain.
The scale of the reported adjustment also appears larger than some earlier market expectations. The material circulating in the industry points to Samsung shipping 62.4 million smartphones in the first quarter and 62.7 million in the second, before production easing to 59 million units in the third quarter and 52 million in the fourth. That would amount to a sequential decline of about 12% in the second half of the year. Some forecasts discussed in the reports suggest full-year output could slip from an initial target of around 270 million units to just above 200 million.
The timing is also consistent with a seasonal pattern. Smartphone production often slows in the final quarter as buyers wait for new Galaxy launches, which usually arrive around January or February. The reports also note that first-quarter demand can be helped by the back-to-school cycle. Against that backdrop, higher memory prices may be amplifying a normal slowdown, rather than creating an entirely new one. Samsung is due to release preliminary third-quarter figures and then its full results later in the month, which should offer a clearer guide to whether the reported production cut is already feeding through to the company’s accounts.
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