With the domestic trade surplus supported by the semiconductor industry, SK Hynix, which is represented by HBM and AI memory, once again revealed the status of semiconductors in 2024 by receiving the highest honor medal at this Trade Day ceremony.

SK Hynix announced on the 9th that Vice President Lee Sang-rak (in charge of Global S&M) received the Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit, the highest honor, at the 61st Trade Day ceremony held at COEX in Seoul on the 5th.

At the Trade Day ceremony, government awards are presented to those who have contributed to expanding the export base throughout the year. The Order of Industrial Service Merit is the highest grade award, and the Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit, which this vice president received, is the highest honor and most prestigious award.

In this award, Vice President Lee was recognized for his contributions to leading the AI-oriented memory market, including HBM, by proactively responding to environmental changes in the AI era and achieving export performance of $18.6 billion as of the first half of 2024, as well as greatly contributing to the enhancement of the status of the semiconductor industry and the development of the national economy.

The vice president said, “I believe this award is a result of the challenging spirit and passion of all SK Hynix members,” and added, “I will do my best to contribute to the development of the company and the semiconductor industry with a greater sense of responsibility in the future.”

The vice president reallocated HBM and general memory production capacity to focus on opportunities in the rapidly developing AI industry and targeted the server and enterprise SSD markets where demand was skyrocketing. With this strategy, the company achieved record-breaking results in the second quarter of 2024, with sales of KRW 17.5731 trillion and operating profit of KRW 7.30 trillion, the highest quarterly sales since its founding.

He said, “Just a year ago, we were going through great difficulties due to unprecedented downturns, but we saw the crisis as an opportunity and established a sales strategy optimized for market changes based on our product competitiveness,” and “We were able to quickly take the lead in the market through strategic collaboration with customers and achieve the result of being the No. 1 in the current AI memory market.”

The vice president also emphasized that in the memory semiconductor industry, which is sensitive to changes in supply and demand, it is also important to have a fast and flexible response system to the rapidly changing IT environment.

He said, “In order to respond to the cycle of the memory semiconductor industry, we must proactively predict customer demand and steadily strengthen technology development and production capabilities in line with industry trends.” He added, “We will continue to work to establish a strategy that aims to simultaneously achieve long-term stability and sustainable growth as well as short-term performance increases, so that SK hynix can establish itself as an unrivaled leader in AI memory.”

Finally, he expressed his pride, saying, “The achievements we have made are not simply the achievements of one company, but have elevated our country’s status in the global market and proven the competitiveness of the national semiconductor industry.”