SK hynix more than doubles Q3 net income on Huawei effect

SK hynix Inc. surpassed industry estimates with its 1.07 trillion won net profit in the third quarter, up 117.5 percent from a year earlier, due to an increase in demand for mobile chips from China's Huawei Technologies Co.

Its third-quarter operating profit more than doubled to 1.29 trillion won from 472.6 billion won last year, while sales jumped 18.9 percent on-year to 8.12 trillion won.

SK hynix, South Korea's second-largest chipmaker, attributed the net profit increase to purchases of its DRAM consumer products by a "certain customer," referring to Huawei, which aggressively purchased semiconductors ahead of the US export restrictions on Sept. 15.

The sharp third-quarter earnings increase was also attributed to a base effect from suffering one of its worst performances last year when its operating profit plummeted 33.2 percent, while sales dropped 5.6 percent.

There was an industry-wide slump during the said period.