Korean chip maker SK Hynix expects to triple sales by 2025

South Korean chip maker SK Hynix expects sales of its NAND memory chips to triple in the next five years, following the recent acquisition of the relevant business unit from Intel in October 2020. NAND memory chips, also known as flash memory, are built into memory cards, USB drives, SSD drives and smartphones, among other things. Industrial applications include scientific instruments, robots and medical devices. Flash memory offers fast access times but is surpassed by RAM or ROM memory. The advantage of flash memory is its relatively high resistance to shock and vibration, which is why it has largely replaced conventional hard drives in portable devices.

“The company will grow self-sustained in the NAND memory segment over the next three years and triple its sales in this business over the next five years,” said SK Hynix CEO Leo Seok-hee during a conference call to announce third quarter results. SK Hynix was already considered a market leader in DRAM and is now considered a global leader in memory manufacturing following the acquisition of Intel’s NAND division. SK Hynix acquired Intel’s businesses in October 2020 for $9 billion. These include the SSD hard disk drive operations and a NAND chip plant in Dalian, China. Last year, SK Hynix sold $4.5 billion of NAND storage, or 19 percent of its total $24 billion business turnover. Prior to the acquisition, Intel’s storage division reported sales of $4.4 billion in 2019.

SK Hynix intends to strengthen its global market position by acquiring Intel’s storage business and to expand and enhance its SSD product portfolio. The company also plans to balance its DRAM and flash memory businesses. Semiconductor industry analysts have seen an increase in global DRAM chip purchases, citing Huawei’s U.S. trade ban. The Chinese company secured large sums of semiconductors in the global market before the ban took effect on September 15, 2020. In the case of SK Hynix, DRAM memory sales accounted for 75 percent, while NAND flash memory achieved 24 percent. Both figures were calculated for the third quarter of 2020. South Korea is considered one of the most important and innovative industrial nations in the world. Many products imported into South Korea must be tested and certified in advance.

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Julian Busch

About the author: Julian Busch is the founder and managing director of MPR International GmbH

Publisher: MPR International GmbH

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