"Despite Slowdown in HBM Next Year, SK Hynix Legacy Semiconductor Remains Strong" - iM Securities

[Financial News] iM Securities stated, "Although the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market will slow down next year, the legacy (older) DRAM and NAND markets will remain stable," and analyzed that "SK Hynix's operating profit next year will record 35 trillion 100 billion won, slightly down from this year's 38 trillion 100 billion won, despite a decrease in the HBM sector." 
Song Myung-seop, a researcher at iM Securities, said on the 16th, "As HBM production exceeds demand this year and next year, the already declining HBM prices are expected to continue to fall next year." 
He added, "Next year's annual average selling price (ASP) of HBM3E (5th generation) 12-layer is expected to decline by mid-to-high 30% compared to this year, and the price premium of HBM4 (6th generation) is expected to be around 60%, considering cost increases and initial yield declines," and "In this case, SK Hynix's annual HBM operating profit margin next year is expected to fall from the mid-60% range this year to the mid-to-high 40% range." 
However, the stability of the older DRAM and NAND markets is seen as positive. 
Researcher Song stated, "The overall DRAM and NAND demand growth rate next year is likely to be at least similar to or slightly exceed the industry's production growth rate," and "If an economic slowdown does not occur, unlike HBM, the legacy DRAM and NAND markets are expected to remain stable next year." 

soup@fnnews.com Lim Soo-bin Reporter