Hynix Halts Chip Supply to Spot Markets

By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter

As part of its efforts to produce more profitable advanced chips, Hynix Semiconductor will raise the portion of the over 1-gigabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips to 60 percent of its total DRAM output by the end of the year.

``To meet soaring demand from contracted clients seeking high-capacity chips, we recently revised up the portion of over 1-gigabit chips from the current 10 percent,’’ a spokesperson from the world’s second-biggest maker of memory chips told The Korea Times, Friday.

The decision came after the South Korean chipmaker stopped selling DRAM chips from September through spot markets to tackle falling prices.

The chipmaker, which supplies about 15 percent of its DRAM chip production to the spot market, will provide more chips to contracted clients such as computer makers, the spokesman said.

Asked about the possible benefits to Taiwanese makers as they expect to lessen the burden of falling prices stemming from oversupply, the spokesman said Hynix is now seeking to produce more profitable chips.

Hynix takes up about 20 percent of the global DRAM market.

Unlike Hynix, Samsung Electronics said it has no plan to stop supplying DRAM chips to the global spot market.

``We still maintain our previous position that over 1-gigabit chips will make up some 40 percent of the total output by the end of the year,’’ a Samsung spokesman told The Korea Times.

According to research firm DramExchange, spot prices of some key DRAM chips have fallen more than 10 percent over the past 10 days. The firm forecast the contracted prices of the chips will drop by 10 percent in the second half of September.

On Friday, UBS downgraded the ratings on both Samsung and Hynix to ``neutral’’ from ``buy,’’ citing a weakening outlook for the chipmaker sector.

DRAM chips are widely used in personal computers.

yckim@koreatimes.co.kr

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