SK’s DRAM Factory
On September 13, SK Hynix announced that it will wrap up the inspection and repair work for the DRAM semiconductor factory in Wuxi, China, which stopped operating after a fire, and reopen it in early October.
In fact, on September 7, which is only four days after the fire, SK Hynix completed safety inspection procedures for non-damaged production lines and resumed operation.
A SK Hynix official said, “Inspection and repair work for the damaged air purifying facility and clean room will be complete by the beginning of next month to resume operation in all facilities,” and added, “The operation rate will be increased step by step to make sure everything is recovered back to before the fire by mid-November.”
It will take at least 2-3 weeks before the production line can come back to normal, because passing a rather picky safety facility inspection by the Chinese fire safety department is mandatory.
Therefore, it is impossible for SK Hynix to avoid problems with its DRAM supplies, which will unavoidably affect prices. In fact, one day after the fire, SK Hynix’s main PC DRAM product prices showed a nearly 20% increase.
To minimize DRAM supply issues, SK Hynix will use a part of the domestic NAND flash memory semiconductor production facility to support DRAM production. SK Hynix mentioned that due to this, a reduction in NAND flash production is inevitable.