Samsung Reportedly Seeks Fourth-Quarter Phone Output Cuts

Samsung has reportedly asked suppliers to reduce smartphone production by 20% to 30% in the fourth quarter of 2026, a move attributed to rising memory costs. The company has not confirmed the reported plan, which could lower its full-year output from an expected 270 million phones to the low or early 200 millions if implemented. The production-cut account comes from unnamed industry sources cited by MoneyToday and repeated across reports. The repetition traces to that single account, rather than independent confirmation. Samsung’s request is described as applying to the final three months of the year; the reported reduction is prospective, and no production data confirms it has occurred. The pressure stems from sharply higher costs for memory and other components used in smartphones. One report cited TrendForce data putting the second-quarter price of 12GB LPDDR5X memory at $145 to $146, nearly three times its year-earlier price. Higher memory demand from artificial-intelligence data centers has tightened supply of chips used in consumer devices, according to the reporting.