Chip demand growth
Chip demand growth SK hynix’s second-quarter financial report performed strongly
According to Yonhap News Agency, a few days ago, South Korea’s second largest chip manufacturer SK Hynix announced its financial report for the second quarter of this year. Thanks to the strong demand for memory chips in the global market, the company’s profit in the second quarter rose rapidly.
According to the financial report, SK Hynix’s revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 was 10.322 trillion won (approximately US$9 billion), and analysts expected 9.79 trillion won, an increase of 19.9%. This is the first time since the third quarter of 2018 (July-September) to exceed 10 trillion won. Operating profit in the second quarter was 2.695 trillion won, and analysts expected 2.61 trillion won, an increase of 38.3% over the same period last year. Net profit in the second quarter was 1.988 trillion won, an increase of 56.5% over the same period last year.
SK Hynix said that demand for personal computers, graphics cards and consumer DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) soared rapidly, and server demand resumed between April and June, which together led to improved business performance. In addition, the increase in sales of advanced technology products such as 128-layer NAND flash memory will help improve cost competitiveness and increase revenue and operating profit.
SK Hynix said that the favorable conditions of the memory market are expected to continue into the second half of 2021, partly due to seasonal demand. Specifically, with the increasing popularity of high-capacity storage devices in mobile devices, the demand for NAND flash memory products will increase, and the demand for enterprise solid state drives will also increase.
In terms of DRAM, SK Hynix said it plans to increase sales of high-capacity server DRAMs of more than 64GB. In addition, the company plans to start supplying DRAM products produced using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology in the second half of this year.
For NAND flash memory, SK Hynix said it will increase sales of 128-layer mobile solution products and enterprise-level solid-state hard drives, hoping to improve in the third quarter. The company also plans to mass-produce 176-layer NAND flash memory later this year. SK Hynix said that in the second quarter of this year, 128-layer NAND accounted for more than 50% of sales. The company predicts that by the end of this year, the proportion of total sales of 128-layer and 176-layer NAND will be close to 80%.
In October last year, SK Hynix signed an agreement to acquire Intel’s NAND business for US$9 billion. Industry insiders pointed out that in the long run, if the transaction is successfully completed, it will help SK Hynix expand its global business network and strengthen storage technology.