30/10/2025

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | OCT 30, 2025

16

SK Hynix bets on chip ‘super cycle’ after record profit Kyu-hyun, SK Hynix’s head of DRAM marketing. competition from rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Micron .

Thailand has not manipulated currency, says finance minister BANGKOK: Thailand’s finance minister said yesterday that the country has not engaged in currency manipulation, and said the central bank has the tools to manage the currency without resorting to intervention. Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas also told reporters that the government would put illicit fund movements under more scrutiny by December. “We have not distorted the management of the baht in the past as it is something our central bank has been very cautious about,” he said. “There are mechanisms in place to oversee the currency without the need for intervention. It is our intention not to cause any distortions.“ Earlier, the US Treasury and the Bank of Thailand said they had agreed not to use any macroprudential or capital flow measures or government investment vehicles such as pension funds to target exchange rates for competitive purposes. The central bank said the agreement did not affect its exchange rate policy and its objective of maintaining exchange rate stability. Its exchange rate policy does not aim to distort the exchange rate market to gain a trade advantage, it said in a statement. Thailand’s economy has struggled with US tariffs, high household debt, and a strong baht. Ekniti said he would hold discussions with the United States about lowering tariffs on some Thai products. The United States set a 19% tariff on imported goods from Thailand, lower than the 36% rate announced earlier and in line with other countries in the region. Thailand and the United States on Sunday reached a framework agreement on trade, in which Thailand would eliminate tariff barriers on approximately 99% of US goods. – Reuters

o All 2026 DRAM, HBM and NAND output sold out, company says SEOUL: South Korea’s SK Hynix has sold out all its chip production for next year and plans to sharply boost investments, expecting an extended chip “super cycle” spurred by the AI boom, it said yesterday after reporting a record quarterly profit. The company, which supplies artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia, said supply growth for memory chips is likely to be limited just as demand is surging, with customers vying to expand investments in AI data centre infrastructure. SK Hynix shares rose as much as 6% after the record profit, outpacing a 1.5% rise in the benchmark KOSPI. A growing number of customers are scrambling to lock in supplies in response to a chip shortage, placing orders for next year in advance and pushing for long-term contracts, the company said. At the same time, a shift in production to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has strained output of conventional memory, such as DRAM, and “total output will inevitably remain limited”, said Kim

SK Hynix said it had completed discussions with key customers regarding HBM supply for 2026, and plans a full-scale sales expansion of HBM4 products next year. SK Hynix said the HBM market is expected to post annual growth of over 30% over the next five years, supported by expanding investments from big tech and AI companies, even under a conservative outlook. The company added that its recent letter of intent with ChatGPT maker OpenAI for HBM supply underscores strong AI-driven demand and the critical importance of securing HBM products. As confidence grows in the earnings potential of the artificial intelligence market, global AI companies are ramping up their investment spending, Kim said, driving rapid growth in demand for a wide range of memory products including HBM, DDR5, and enterprise SSDs. To meet this demand, a rise in capital expenditure across the memory industry is inevitable, and SK Hynix said it expects its own spending to grow substantially from this year’s level, without specifying a figure. Buoyed by its advantage in advanced chips, SK Hynix’s shares have surged 200% so far this year, outpacing an 87% gain in Samsung’s shares and a 67% gain in the benchmark KOSPI. – Reuters

“This structural constraint on DRAM supply is expected to support the current prolonged memory super cycle, as supply growth lags behind accelerating demand.” SK Hynix reported a record 11.4 trillion won (RM33.6 billion) operating profit for the July-September period, up 62% from a year earlier and in line with a forecast by LSEG SmartEstimate. Quarterly revenue rose 39% in the third quarter to 24.4 trillion won. SK Hynix has already secured full customer demand for its entire DRAM, HBM, and NAND production for next year and plans to start shipping the next-generation HBM4 chips in the fourth quarter of this year. When asked about its HBM pricing for next year, the company said it would be able to maintain profitability on its HBM products. The chip maker expects DRAM shipments to grow by more than 20% year-on-year in 2026. “DRAM inventories have dropped to extremely low levels, and for DDR5 products, newly produced chips must be shipped to customers immediately to meet demand,” said Kim. While thriving on a strong market for conventional memory, the company wants to maintain its edge in advanced AI chips supplied to Nvidia, in the face of mounting

Telenor slightly lags earnings forecast, takes financial hit in Malaysia OSLO: Norwegian telecom operator Telenor yesterday posted quarterly earnings slightly below market expectations and flagged a negative adjustment of 500 million Norwegian crowns (RM209 million) related to rising costs in Malaysia. Overall, the company’s results were in line or a touch lower than the market consensus, helped by a solid performance in its core Nordic markets. Schilbred Fasmer said in the earnings statement. In Malaysia, 5G-related costs and headwinds are increasing, she added.

“Based on the latest public information, we make a 0.5 billion crown negative adjustment to our share of results from CelcomDigi this quarter related to its associated 5G network company in Malaysia,” Schilbred Fasmer said. Telenor is the top shareholder in Malaysia’s largest mobile network operator CelcomDigi together with Axiata, with a 33.1% stake each. – Reuters

In Asia, Telenor saw EBITDA growth of 4.1%, partially helped by growth in Bangladesh’s leading telecom operator Grameenphone, in which the Norwegian group owns a 55.8% stake. “Still, consumers in Bangladesh continue to be highly prudent in the wake of last year’s macro-economic setback,” CEO Benedicte

Telenor’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 9.54 billion crowns in the third quarter, from 9.21 billion crowns a year earlier. Analysts polled by it had expected 9.6 billion crowns on average.

China buys US soybean cargoes ahead of Trump-Xi meet: Sources

BEIJING: state-owned COFCO bought three US soybean cargoes, two trade sources said, the country’s first purchases from this year’s US harvest, shortly before a summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. As the two nations battle over trade tariffs, the lack of Chinese buying has cost US farmers billions of dollars in lost sales, after they largely supported Trump in his campaigns for president. Although COFCO’s deal for December-January shipment of about 180,000 metric tons of soybeans was China’s first such buy in months, traders do not expect a significant resumption in demand for US cargoes after recent large South American purchases. COFCO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. “COFCO has proceeded to purchase US beans even before the two leaders have reached a trade China’s

expected for December and January ahead of the Brazilian harvest. “US suppliers have missed out on most of oilseed crushing business,“ said a second oilseed trader, who expected China to need about 5 million tons of shipments in December and January, for which market conditions favour Brazil. US soybeans, which traded at a steep discount to Brazilian cargoes in recent weeks due to subdued Chinese demand, have strengthened this week and are now priced at parity at about US$2.45 per bushel above Chicago futures, traders said. Private Chinese buyers tend to prefer Brazilian soybeans for their higher protein content, which typically brings a premium over US soybeans, said Jeffrey Xu, general manager of Shanghai-based OCI, a soybean consultant and two other traders. Still, China could take about 8 million tons of US soybeans for its

agreement,” said a trader at an international trading company that supplies Chinese crushers. “The volumes booked by COFCO are not that large, three cargoes for now.” Benchmark Chicago soybean futures prices jumped this week to their highest in 15 months, rebounding from recent five-year lows on hopes for a US-China trade deal. The prime US soybean export season normally runs from October through January, but China has shunned soybeans from the autumn US harvest this year, amid protracted trade friction with Washington, turning instead to South American suppliers. Reuters was the first to report China’s purchase of three cargoes. China, which takes more than 60% of world soybean imports, has nearly completed booking cargoes from Brazil and Argentina through November, with limited purchases

A farmer loads soybeans from grain bins into a truck so they can be hauled to an elevator and sold in the US village of Dwight. – AFPPIC

strategic reserves in the period from December to May, traders said, buying through state-owned

enterprises such as Sinograin, which would be worth roughly US$4 billion. – Reuters