The Korean chip maker inked an operating profit of 3.057 trillion won in second quarter, up 35% year-on-year on consolidated revenues of 6.692 trillion won, which is also up 70% from a year ago. It is up 6% and 24% respectively, when compared to the previous quarter.

Leapfrogs in the average selling prices of memory chips were a major contributor.

The DRAM chip shipment increased 3% quarter-on-quarter, powering up the average selling price by 11% quarter on quarter.


The shipment of NAND flash memory chip shipment declined 6% quarter on quarter mainly due to sluggish demand in highly saturated smartphone market, but the average selling price rose 8% quarter on quarter as the adoption of NAND flash in PC and server market is increasing.

As 3D NAND flash memory chip technology is scaling up, the gap in the price of NAND flash memory chip-based SSD and conventional HDDs is increasingly narrowing down, revving up the adoption of still pricier, but energy-thriftier and speedier SSDs across a broad range of computing devices from PCs to servers.

SK Hynix expects that strong demand for memory chip products will continue into the second half of the year, due to newly-to-be released smartphones and mushrooming data centers. 

The chip maker added that it will expand the production capacity of high-end mobile DRAM products and start the commercial mass production of 10nm DRAM in the second half as planned.

SK Hynix is scheduled to start producing its 3D NAND Flash memory chips in its new production line in ‘M14’ facility.

It also plans to expand its 72-Layer 3D NAND flash memory chipproduct line. The chip maker will introduce 72-Layer 3D NAND flash memory chip products for mobile solution and cSSD at the end of the year, and for eSSDs in 2018.