SK Hynix's profit hits record high in 2015 on robust chip sales

SK Hynix, South Korea's No. 2 memory chip maker, posted the highest earnings in 2015, keeping a record-breaking trend for three straight years, on the back of robust semiconductor sales, a regulatory filing showed Tuesday.

Revenue increased 10 percent from a year earlier to 18.8 trillion won (15.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015. Operating profit advanced 4 percent to 5.3 trillion won, and net profit rose 3 percent to 4.3 trillion won.

All the three figures topped previous record numbers tallied in 2014, maintaining the highest earnings since 2013.

Operating profit margin recorded 28 percent in 2015, with the net profit rate reaching 23 percent.

In the fourth quarter of last year, however, earnings slowed down from the previous quarter due to soft demand for memory chips.

The fourth-quarter operating profit tumbled 29 percent from three months earlier to 988.9 billion won. Compared with a year earlier, the profit plunged 41 percent.

Revenue was 4.4 trillion won during the October-December period, down 10 percent from previous three months. From a year ago, it was down 14 percent.

Net profit declined 17 percent from the previous quarter to 871 billion won in the final quarter of last year.

The company's DRAM sales fell 1 percent, while NAND flash shipment rose 4 percent. Average price of DRAM and NAND flash chips recorded a double-digit decline, pulling down the fourth-quarter earnings. Enditem