SK Hynix evasive about media report

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, did not deny a reported augmentation plan worth billions of dollars at its main manufacturing assembly in Icheon, Gyeonggi.

“To maintain its mid- and long-term competitiveness in business, the company is reviewing a plan to build a new cleanroom for the modernization of the obsolete M10 Line in Icheon, Gyeonggi,” SK Hynix said in a statement, referring to the assembly line built in 1994.

The company was responding to a request from the Korea Exchange, operator of the country’s main bourse, after news media reported that the company plans to inject 15 trillion won ($14 billion) over the next eight years into the production line in Icheon, its headquarters.

The company, however, said the plan has yet to be confirmed. “We will make it public within a month if we make a decision,” it said.

The reports said the company will spend 3 trillion won for a new plant in Incheon and 11.7 trillion won for its equipment by 2022.

Bloomberg cited two sources that said SK Hynix will spend at least 4 trillion won next year “on the plant and on maintenance and technology upgrades at existing facilities.”

Its share price dropped 2.9 percent to 35,550 won yesterday.

Hynix unsuccessfully sought to augment the Icheon factory in 2006 due to the government’s regulation on land development within conservation areas in and around Seoul. The regulation was eased in 2010.

SK Hynix had 28.5 percent of the global DRAM chips market in the third quarter.

BY MOON GWANG-LIP [joe@joongang.co.kr]