Hynix Semiconductor Inc yesterday announced strong fourth quarter results, thanks to its improved productivity and less-than-expected falls in memory chip prices.
The world's second-largest memory chip maker said its fourth-quarter operating profit increased 6 percent to 522 billion won (US$534 million) from the previous quarter, beating market expectations of some 420 billion won.
Fourth quarter net profit also increased 44 percent from the previous quarter to 764 billion won.
"The fourth-quarter operating profit margin came to 30 percent," Hynix Semiconductor said in a statement.
The company fell just short of rival Samsung Electronics Co's 32-percent operating profit margin in its semiconductor operation.
Sales came to 1.765 trillion won, up 10 percent from the third quarter.
For all of last year, sales amounted to 5.9 trillion won, down 3 percent from 2004. Operating profit came to 1.6 trillion won, down 21 percent and net profit totaled 1.85 trillion won, up 7 percent.
Hynix' solid performance was in sharp contrast with its Taiwanese and Japanese competitors which recently posted weak results.
"Compared to worsened financial results from some of our competitors during the same period, we have recorded a relatively high operating profit margin of 30 percent," the company said in a statement.
Hynix attributed the results to its "competitive cost structure and the successful expansion" of its NAND flash business.
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
TALENT FACTOR: The nation’s chip sector would be difficult to replace, but to maintain that advantage, Taiwan must retain skilled workers, an academic said A group of experts on Sunday called on Taiwan to strive to maintain its world-leading position in the semiconductor industry, with a US-China chip dispute expected to continue regardless of who becomes the next US president. Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies director Li Da-jung (李大中) said at a Taipei seminar on global semiconductor security that the relationship between the two superpowers would remain confrontational. There appears to be “no turning back” in US-China relations, as US presidential candidates US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump are both expected to continue Washington’s hawkish stance