SK Hynix Q4 profit doubles to record level

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix said Wednesday its profits more than doubled in the fourth quarter to a record high, thanks to the soaring popularity of new mobile devices such as Apple's iPhones.

Net profit for October to December last year amounted to 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion), up 106 percent from a year ago, the Icheon-based company said in a statement.

Operating profit jumped 112 percent to 1.7 trillion won and sales rose 53 percent to 5.1 trillion won.

SK Hynix—which is Apple's second largest chip supplier—is one of the world's largest makers of memory chips used for personal computers, servers and mobile devices.

Apple on Wednesday posted a record profit of $18 billion for the fourth quarter on booming sales of the big-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

SK Hynix said shipments of its NAND flash chips used for mobile handsets rose 30 percent due to "growing demand boosted by the launch of new mobile devices".

The company also saw annual net profit for 2014 hit a record of 4.2 trillion won, up nearly 50 percent from a year ago.

It added that the memory chip market in 2015 would be led by growth in mobile and corporate server segments.

© 2015 AFP