(LEAD) SK hynix Q3 net more than doubles on soaring mobile chip demand

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SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- SK hynix Inc., South Korea's second-largest chipmaker, on Wednesday reported estimate-beating third-quarter earnings on the back of a recovery in demand for mobile chips amid the pandemic.

Its net profit stood at 1.07 trillion won (US$950.4 million) in the third quarter of the year, up 117.5 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit for the July-September period more than doubled to 1.29 trillion won compared with 472.6 billion won a year ago, while sales jumped 18.9 percent on-year to 8.12 trillion won.

Its sharp increase in third-quarter earnings was also attributed to a base effect since the company suffered one of its worst performances last year due to an industrywide slump.

Compared with the second quarter, its operating profit plunged 33.2 percent, while sales fell 5.6 percent.

For DRAM, SK hynix said it "proactively responded" to increasing demand for mobile and graphics DRAM products.

"In spite of decreased server DRAM demand, the company's DRAM bit shipment in the quarter still increased by 4 percent quarter-on-quarter," SK hynix said. "However, due to the unfavorable price of server DRAM and other certain DRAM products, the average selling price decreased by 7 percent quarter-on-quarter."

SK hynix also saw increased NAND flash bit shipments in the third quarter due to strong sales in mobile products and solid state drives (SSDs) for new gaming consoles.

"The sales expansion boosted the NAND flash bit shipment by 9 percent quarter-on-quarter," it said. "Still, the weakening price flow of the server products led to the decrease of the average selling price by 10 percent quarter-on-quarter."

SK hynix said it expects a seasonal increase of mobile market demand to continue in the fourth quarter and PC market demand to remain strong as well.
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