By Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc on Wednesday posted a 116% jump in first-quarter earnings, supported by solid demand from server clients but slightly missing market expectations due to weaker demand for mobile chips.
The world’s second-biggest memory chipmaker said its operating profit rose to 2.9 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in the January-March quarter, its highest first-quarter profit since 2018, up from 1.3 trillion won a year earlier.
However, the profit was below analysts’ expected profit of 3.1 trillion won, according to Refinitiv SmartEstimate.
Revenue climbed 43% on-year to 12.2 trillion won.
A disruption at a rival NAND flash chip plant owned by Japan’s Kioxia and Western Digital in February due to contamination of raw materials led to solid shipments and a quarter-on-quarter price rise for NAND flash chips, analysts said.
However, slowing demand for mobile chips due to China’s COVID-19 lockdown and inflationary pressures weighed on earnings.
($1 = 1,261.0000 won)
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Richard Pullin)
