Jan. 3, 2002 – Seoul, Korea – Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has raised prices for its long-term customers for the third time in a month.

The company said the 30% price increase and other recent hikes were aimed at narrowing the gap between prices for chips sold by long-term contracts and those sold immediately on the market, reported the Associated Press.

Hynix has been in financial trouble and has debts of more than $6 billion. It lost nearly $3 billion in the first nine months of 2001 as global prices for chips fell.

Analysts said the price hikes would help ease the company’s financial difficulties, but any benefits would be short-lived without a continued recovery in global demand for memory chips.

“It’s definitely good news, but chip prices would have to continue to rise to help Hynix completely get out of its difficulties,” said Park Young-ju, a semiconductor analyst at LG Investment and Securities Co.

Hynix’s latest price increase was the third since early December. Its prices had previously gone up by 10 to 20%.

Kang In-young, a spokeswoman for Hynix, refused to reveal the new prices, saying each customer was offered a different quote.