SK Hynix to Make Its Biggest Investment Ever in 2016 and Make Preemptive Move to Overcome Difficulties

SK Hynix is going to invest about $4.96 billion (6 trillion KRW) for its facilities this year, and this amount is its biggest ever since company’s establishment.

Although it is expected that market situation for semiconductor will be difficult, SK Hynix has decided to carry out preemptive investment.

SK Hynix made an announcement on the 14th that it is planning to put more than $4.96 billion for its facilities this year. It is planning to replace its own record of biggest investment that was set last year and will confirm on such plan after having a workshop for executives on the 16th of January.

SK Hynix is going to invest in developing technologies to strengthen competitiveness in production cost, securing production space that is necessary for long-term, and establishing basic facilities.

It is going to focus on developing and mass-producing its memory technologies such as 2z, 1x-nano D-RAM, and 3D NAND-Flash that are at world’s best level. If new technologies and products are finished according to its plan, production cost will decrease and efficiency in investments will increase.

To prepare for increase in medium and long-term demands, SK Hynix is going to build new factories in Icheon and Cheongju regions. It is going to purchase land for its new factories that will be constructed in Cheongju and organize land for its new factories that will be constructed in Icheon by end of this year.

It will also push for second step of extension for Icheon M14 Factory, which was constructed last year, and invest more than $827 million (1 trillion KRW) to establish basic facilities regarding electricity, environment and others and clean room.

“We are going to re-operate our own DNA that we had used in the past when we were overcoming difficulties.” said a person related to SK Hynix. “By continuously making investments to strengthen our future competitiveness, we are going to change difficult times into opportunities and strengthen bases for our growth even more.”

Even when investments from semiconductor industry were decreasing in 2012, which was right after SK Hynix was added to SK Group, SK Hynix increased its amount of investment for facilities by more than 10%. A reason why SK Hynix was able to break its biggest level of performance continuously for last 3 years is due to its aggressive investments.

SK Hynix will invest $4.96 billion(6 trillion KRW) for facilities, which is the biggest amount ever since company's establishment.

As SK Hynix is continuously making its huge investments this year as well, it is predicted that amount of orders that rear-end equipment industry will receive will also greatly increase.

It is predicted that semiconductor clean room facility industries such as Sungdo Engineering and Shinsung Engineering will be the first ones to become beneficiaries of SK Hynix’s investment in facilities. Front-end equipment industries such as Jusung Engineering, Eugene Tech, WONIK IPS, TES, Kookjie Electric Korea Co., Ltd., KC Tech, and DMS are also being mentioned as possible beneficiaries.

Staff Reporter Han, Juyeop | [email protected]