Foundry Business Investment

SK Hynix is planning to triple its investment in foundry business this year.
SK Hynix is planning to triple its investment in foundry business this year.

 

According to industry sources, SK Hynix is planning to triple its investment in foundry business this year. To this end, SK Hynix recently organized a task force at its M8 foundry plant located in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. Members of the task force are currently conducting research on process optimization, efficiency improvement, sustainable cost reduction, etc.

“The exact amount of our investment in foundry business that is to be made this year cannot be revealed,” the company explained, adding, “The investment forms a part of our planned capital expenditure for this year, which totals seven trillion won.” In the third quarter of last year, the company turned its foundry business unit into one under the direct control of its CEO.

At present, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are the two largest companies in the global memory semiconductor industry. However, SK Hynix still has a far way to go in the much larger system semiconductor market. SK Hynix currently has a share of 26% or so in the DRAM market, second only to Samsung Electronics, but its ranking in the foundry industry is way lower as of now.

The global foundry market has a rosy outlook by the way. According to market research firm IHS, the annual growth rate of the overall semiconductor industry is estimated to fall from 0.3% to 0% between this year and 2020 whereas that of the foundry market is estimated at 5.9% this year, 6.1% in 2018, 3.8% in 2019 and 1.0% in 2020.

 

 

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