SK Hynix said on Wednesday that its operating profit for the first quarter more than doubled from a year ago thanks to memory chip prices dropping less than expected, despite the quarter being a traditionally low-demand season.

The South Korean chipmaker recorded 12.16 trillion won in revenue and 2.86 trillion won during the quarter, an increase of 43% and 116%, respectively, from a year ago. It is the company's best performance for the January-March period to date.

While demand for IT products slowed down and supply chain issues persisted during the first quarter, SK Hynix said it flexibly responded to memory chip demand and focused on profitability management.

However, the company's latest earnings also include a one-off provision of 380 billion won to cover the cost of exchanging DRAM chips that it supplied to a customer due to quality issues.

Meanwhile, the chipmaker said the overall memory market is expected to show sustained growth going forward with less volatility than in the past.

Demand for server chips was on the rise and market conditions for memory chips are expected to become more and more favorable going into the second half of the year, the company said.

While there were some minor issues in procuring fab equipment due to the chip shortage, SK Hynix said its development cycle for next-generation products was currently on schedule.

The chipmaker added that It was improving the yield rate of its latest high-end chips, 10nm DRAM and 176-layer NAND, and expanding its production volume to meet demand.

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