SK Hynix has reported operating profits of KRW966 billion (US$0.87 billion) on consolidated revenue of KRW7.97 trillion for the fourth quarter of 2020, representing sequential decreases of 26% in profits and 2% in revenue.

Falling chip prices and the Korean won's appreciation resulted in the revenue and profit drops during the quarter, said SK Hynix. Nevertheless, the company said it achieved an operating profit growth of 298% on year by "actively responding to the strong mobile demand from the third quarter."

SK Hynix saw its DRAM bit shipments increase 11% sequentially in the fourth quarter, but ASPs fell 7%. As for NAND flash, bit shipments rose 8% while ASPs declined 8% on quarter.

SK Hynix' operating profits for 2020 surged 84% to KRW5.01 trillionm while revenue grew 18% on year to KRW31.9 trillion.

"Due to the global pandemic and the intensifying trade disputes last year, the memory market showed sluggish trend," said Kevin Jongwon Noh, executive VP and head of corporate center at SK Hynix. "In the meantime, the company stably mass-produced its main products such as 1Znm DRAM and 128-layer NAND flash."

SK Hynix also expanded its share of the server memory market in 2020, which led to significant revenue and profit growth, Noh continued.

SK Hynix expects server DRAM demand to grow in 2021, thanks to investments by global data center vendors. Meanwhile, 5G smartphone shipments will be rising this year. With limited growth on the supply side, the overall DRAM demand will fall short in 2021, the chipmaker said.

As for NAND flash, SK Hynix expects the market to recover starting the second half of 2021. Suppliers' excess inventory issues will be resolved in the first half of this year, while the adoption of high-capacity products will be growing among mobile devices along with strong demand for SSDs, the chipmaker said.

SK Hynix said it also plans to diversify its NAND flash products, such as pursuing customer certification for 128-layer SSDs for servers.

SK Hynix plans to further raise its cost competitiveness by introducing 1Anm DRAM and 176-layer 4D NAND flash products in 2021, according to the company.