Hynix profit jumps on demand for NAND chips

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. posted a 43 percent increase in fourth-quarter operating profit to 540 billion won ($557 million) from a quarter earlier on expanded sales of NAND flash chips used for portable music players. In the October-December quarter, its sales amounted to 1.7 trillion won, up 17 percent from the previous quarter, the world’s second-largest chip maker said in a regulatory filing yesterday. For all of 2005, net profit rose 7.4 percent from a year earlier to 1.8 trillion won and the operating margin was 27 percent, which is comparable to the margin at the semiconductor division of Samsung Electronics Co., Hynix’s biggest rival. However, sales edged down 2 percent from a year earlier. Hynix shares edged up 1.5 percent on better-than-expected earnings. Sales of NAND flash memory, mostly used in digital cameras and MP3 music players, accounted for 40 percent of Hynix’s total revenues, an increase of 10 percentage points. The company plans to spend 1.3 trillion won on a Chinese plant and another 2.3 trillion won on other domestic and overseas plants. The combined amount represents an increase of 1.4 trillion won from last year’s 2.2 trillion won. by Seo Ji-eun