Feb. 5, 2008 – Hynix Semiconductor plans to invest 1.5-2.0T won (US ~$1.6B) in its 300mm DRAM plant in Wuxi, China (C2 line) to hike production by about 20% to 120,000 wafers/month, increasing its product mix coming from China to 55%-60% DRAM, according to a report in the Korea Times.

The company has said it wants to invest 3.6T won (~$3.8B) for the year across all its sites, mainly focusing on production of more profitable NAND chips. Some of those investments, for example, will go to the company’s M11 line in Cheongju, Korea’s North Chungcheong Province, with planned production set for 2H08, a company rep told the paper.

Hynix also is expected to produce 30,000 WPM in 1Q08 in Taiwan through its JV with ProMOS.

Hynix posted a net loss of 465B won (~$494M) in 4Q07, and is wary of weak pricing persisting in 1Q08, but nevertheless “we will continue to challenge,” said Kwon Oh-chul, chief of strategic planning office, cited by the paper. Hynix expects to hike DRAM shipments by 55%-60% this year, and more than double that for NAND (120%-130%) — but Kwon says moving to finer process technologies will help it cut costs by 35% in its DRAM business, and 45%-50% in the NAND side.