The outlook isn't improving. Samsung Electronics Co, which will spend 10 times more than Hynix this year on new equipment and is the only maker still profitable, said last month it will focus on limiting losses for the rest of this year.
Hynix needs to repay debts that drain a third of its operating income to remain competitive. Salomon forecast in mid-May, before the share sale that it arranged, that the decline in chip prices would slow by the end of June and that there would be a "modest recovery" by September.
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