SK Hynix restarts construction of its NAND flash memory plant in China, expanding capacity by approximately 50% to position itself against Yangtze Memory and CXMT.

To counter the rapid expansion of Chinese domestic storage manufacturers like Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) and ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the Korean storage giants, which had previously maintained a slower development pace, have recently been forced to accelerate their capacity expansion plans across the board.

It is reported that SK Hynix has officially restarted construction on the second NAND flash memory production facility at its Dalian, China base. Once fully operational, the storage chip capacity at the Dalian site will increase by approximately 50%.

Construction on this Dalian Plant 2 originally began four years ago, but was halted and left idle for an extended period as the global memory industry entered a downturn cycle, with no further progress made. According to SK Hynix's latest plans, the first batch of semiconductor production equipment will be installed and commissioned by the end of this year, with mass production slated to begin in the first half of next year.

The new production line will have a monthly wafer input capacity of approximately 50,000 wafers. Combined with the existing 100,000 wafers per month from Dalian Plant 1, SK Hynix's total production scale at the Dalian site will increase directly by about 50%.

In 2021, SK Hynix acquired Intel's NAND storage business and established the independent brand Solidigm, while also taking over Dalian Plant 1 and all related facility assets. Construction of Plant 2 officially began in May of the following year.

However, as the storage semiconductor industry subsequently fell into a downturn marked by weak demand and inverted pricing, Dalian Plant 2 came to a complete standstill after the main structural framework was completed, with no further equipment installation taking place.

Multiple industry insiders have analyzed that the pace of technological iteration and capacity expansion by Chinese domestic storage manufacturers such as YMTC and CXMT has far exceeded industry expectations in recent years. If Korean storage giants like Samsung and SK Hynix continue to develop capacity at their original slow pace, they will soon be caught up with or even surpassed. In that scenario, the global storage market share that Korean manufacturers have long dominated would face severe and potentially irreversible damage.