According to reports, SK Hynix NAND Flash factory M15 was officially launched yesterday. At the same time, SK hynix announced that it will increase investment in the plant, with a total investment of about 17.8 billion US dollars, 29% more than the original budget.
The new M15 new production line is located in Cheongju. SK Hynix was announced in December 2016 and started construction in April 2017. It was completed on October 4, 2018. The new plant will strengthen the Korean competitiveness in storage industry. SK plans to continue to expand this line, but the details will be determined based on market conditions.
According to SemeMedia's report on September 21, the plant will begin production of 96-layer NAND Flash flash memory in the first quarter of 2019, which will have a monthly production of 200,000 pieces, similar to the Icheon M14 production line.
According to Korean media analysis, SK Hynix can reduce the market gap by expanding production at the M15 factory. In addition, according to SK hynix's second quarter earnings report, DRAM accounted for 80% of sales, NAND Flash only accounted for 18%, Sk Hynix's reliance on DRAM was significantly higher. SK Hynix intends to reduce its reliance on DRAM by investing in NAND Flash.
Although the average price of NAND chips has fallen by half due to oversupply, some industry insiders analyzed that due to the increase in sales of Apple's new iPhone, the demand for NAND Flash flash memory will gradually grow and the price decline will slow down.
