New Record
SK Hynix made 5 trillion won (US$4.6 billion) of operating profits last year, a new record for the company. This record breaks the previous record, which was set just last year.
SK Hynix announced that last year's sales were 17.1256 trillion won (US$15.6519 billion) and its operating profits amounted to 5.1095 trillion won (US$4.6824 billion). The rate of operating profit was 30 percent. Sales increased 21 percent and operating profits increased 51 percent, respectively. The net profits for the year was 4.195 trillion won (US$3.846 billion), a 46 percent increase and is the largest yet.
In the fourth quarter of last year, sales were 5.1479 trillion won (US$4.7176 billion), operating profits 1.6672 trillion won (US$1.5278 billion), and net profits 1.6241 trillion won (US$1.4883 billion). Sales increased 19 percent from the previous quarter and 53 percent from the same period of the previous year. Operating profits also increased 28 percent from the previous quarter and 112 percent from a year ago.
The company explains that SK Hynix's good performance in the fourth quarter is due to increasing profit rates of dynamic RAM (DRAM) and NAND flash memory.
Shipments of DRAM increased by 18 percent due to the expansion of proportion of 20 nm middle class processing technology products to the late 40 percent, and the expanded proportion of products for PCs and servers. However, average sale price decreased by 3 percent.
Shipments of NAND flash increased 30 percent with higher demand due to the launch of new mobile devices and the expansion of 10 nm processing technology products. The average sales price decreased by 8 percent.
SK Hynix invested 5.2 trillion won (US$4.8 billion) in facilities last year, and plans to invest a similar amount this year, too.
The company, in the meantime, determined to provide cash dividends of 300 won (US$0.27) per share on common stock for the first time after becoming part of the SK Group.