One of Korea's largest semiconductor firms, SK hynix, has posted record operating profits for last year.<br />However, the numbers for the fourth quarter.... paint a worrying picture for the year ahead. <br />Our Ko Roon-hee explains. <br />It was another record breaking year for the world's second-biggest memory chip maker. <br />SK hynix posted record sales and operating profits for the second straight year in 2018.<br />Total sales were estimated at around 35-point-9 billion U.S. dollars,... up from the previous year's 26-point-7 billion dollars.<br /><br />And more importantly, operating profits came at 18-point-5 billion dollars... up from 12-point-2 billion in 2017.<br /><br />The company attributed the figures to strong sales of memory chips... due to high demand from data centers and increased production of high-performance mobile devices. <br /><br />However, the numbers in the 4th quarter paint a worrying picture for this year. <br /><br />During the October to December period, the operating profit dropped to around 3-point-9 billion U.S. dollars... a more than 30-percent on-quarter fall.<br />This is the first time since the first quarter of 2018... that the company's quarterly operating profit has been below the 4-billion dollar mark. <br /><br />Analysts point to sharp declines in Chinese demand for electronic products and the recent falling orders from data centers.<br /><br />For this year, falling prices is another problem.<br />Server DRAM contract prices are expected to drop by more than 20-percent in the first quarter of this year, according to market tracker DRAMeXchange.<br /><br />Meanwhile, SK hynix's rival, Samsung Electronics, is set to release its final earnings report for 2018 next week. <br />Samsung had stunned the market earlier this month... with an estimated 29-percent drop in quarterly profit compared to the previous year.<br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
