SK Hynix to maintain current production at China plants

SK Hynix Inc said on Wednesday that the South Korean chip company, as well as its current suppliers and business partners, is still authorized to engage in activities necessary to maintain current production of integrated circuits in China for one year without further licensing requirements.

The comments came after the company received an official letter from the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security which clarified its position with respect to its latest export control regulations.

"Our discussions with the (US) Department of Commerce led to an approval to supply equipment and items needed for development and production of DRAM semiconductors in Chinese facilities without additional licensing requirements," the company said in a statement.

The new rules require a license for export, re-export or transfer (in-country) to China items including manufacturing equipment and support for DRAM chips 18 nanometer and below, NAND chips with 128 layers or more, and logic chips 14nm and below.

DRAM, or dynamic random access memory chips, are flash memory chips used in smartphones, personal computers and servers. NAND is a type of non-volatile memory chip.

As a result of its efforts to minimize the impact, SK Hynix was able to secure an authorization to continue its operations without additional licensing requirements imposed by the new rules.

"Continued supply of equipment means a stable provision of memory chips to the world," the company said. "Along with the Korean government, we will continue our consultations with the (US) Department of Commerce and make utmost efforts to operate our plants in China in a stable way, while continuing compliance with applicable laws and regulations".