The memory market is in crisis, simply because demand is outstripping supply. So SK Hynix is taking matters into its own hands, announcing that its future P&T7 plant will be completed in 2027 and come into full operation in 2028. Of course, the company isn’t doing this to “be nice”. The aim is simply to increase market share. What’s more, we can expect tensions in this sector to ease from 2028 onwards, simply because this is a truly impressive site.
P&T7: a new 230,000 m² factory!
A gigantic surface area:
With this new plant, we’re not talking about a small site, but a city within a city. Indeed, in terms of total surface area, we’re talking about 230,000 m² spread over several floors. These are broken down as follows:
- Three 60,000 m² floors dedicated to WLP(Wafer-Level Packaging) production
- Seven 90,000 m² floors for wafer test lines.
Once completed, the site will accommodate around 3,000 employees. Construction is currently underway, with 320 workers on site every day, and up to 9,000 on peak days. Site handover is scheduled for 2027, with the test wafer lines coming on stream at the end of October 2027. The WLP lines will enter service in February 2028… At least, that’s the current schedule. Let’s hope the project doesn’t fall further behind schedule.
Please note that construction is taking place in the Cheongju Technopolis industrial complex in South Korea.
Towards an easing of memory tensions in 2028?
Clearly, with the commissioning of such a site, SK Hynix will seriously increase its production capacity, without saying that this will solve the crisis. The outcome is well known: more production = more supply, and possibly lower prices( DDR5 prices being very high). But SK Hynix isn’t doing this to please. This site aims to capture more market share, mainly in the HBM memory market. The Korean company is considered the leader in the production of this type of memory. Samsung, on the other hand, seems to be experiencing performance difficulties.
