SK Hynix Q3 Operating Profit Hits 1.3 Trillion Won... Surpasses 1 Trillion Won for Consecutive Quarters (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] SK Hynix recorded an operating profit of 1.2997 trillion KRW in the third quarter, achieving over 1 trillion KRW in operating profit for two consecutive quarters.

SK Hynix announced on the 4th that its consolidated operating profit for the third quarter of this year was preliminarily estimated at 1.2997 trillion KRW, a 175% increase compared to the same period last year. During the same period, sales reached 8.1288 trillion KRW, up 18.9% year-on-year. Net profit increased by 117.5% to 1.0779 trillion KRW.

However, due to weak demand for data center server DRAM and solid-state drives (SSD), the memory market experienced price declines, resulting in a 6% decrease in sales and a 33% decrease in operating profit compared to the previous quarter.

Despite the decline in memory prices, the effect of urgent orders following the US sanctions on Huawei offset this. DRAM shipments increased by 4% quarter-on-quarter, driven by new demand in mobile and graphics sectors, while NAND flash shipments rose by 9% quarter-on-quarter due to expanded sales of mobile products and SSDs for new game consoles.

SK Hynix expects strong seasonal demand in the mobile market to continue into the fourth quarter, with steady demand for PCs as well.

For DRAM, the company plans to focus on responding to mobile demand by expanding sales of the 10nm-class 2nd generation (1Y) LPDDR5, while expanding the uMCP market combined with high-capacity NAND flash. Additionally, SK Hynix aims to strengthen its position in the server DRAM market based on quality competitiveness by increasing the sales proportion of server products with capacities of 64GB or more and maximizing sales of HBM products.

For NAND flash, SK Hynix plans to actively respond to stable mobile demand while improving profitability by expanding the proportion of 128-layer based products, which began full-scale sales in the third quarter.

Lee Seok-hee, CEO (President) of SK Hynix, stated, “To quickly secure SSD technology and product portfolio, we plan to acquire Intel’s NAND business division and establish a balanced business structure between DRAM and NAND flash.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.