SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc posted a record quarterly operating loss on Wednesday after warning of an “unprecedented deterioration” in memory chip demand.
The world’s second-biggest memory chipmaker reported a 1.7 trillion won ($1.38 billion) operating loss in the October-December quarter, from 4.2 trillion won profit a year earlier.
The quarterly loss is the biggest since SK Group acquired Hynix in 2012.
This compares with expectations for a 1.3 trillion won operating loss according to 21 analysts compiled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analysts that are more consistently accurate.
Revenue fell 38% on-year to 7.7 trillion won.
On Tuesday, memory chip No. 1 Samsung Electronics reported a 69% plunge in its chip operating profit, although Samsung retained a profit during the fourth quarter.
($1 = 1,232.4700 won)
(Reporting by Joyce LeeEditing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
