SK Hynix says operations partly resumed at fire-hit China plant

SK Hynix Inc <000660.KS> said on Sunday it had partially resumed operations at its fire-affected plant in China, which produces half of its computer memory chips, on Saturday and plans to restore full operations as soon as it can.

Wednesday's fire at the plant belonging to the key supplier to Apple Inc has caused concern that a prolonged suspension of operations, such as a shutdown of a month or more, would push chip prices sharply higher. The factory produces nearly 15 percent of global DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips.

"We are continuing our inspection of utilities and equipment to restore the line that was partly damaged by the fire... Our plan is to resume normal operations with full production capacity in the shortest time by ramping up operations in stages as soon as the damaged facilities are replaced," Hynix said in a statement.

Hynix was likely to resume operations within two to three weeks or even earlier, a source familiar with the situation had told Reuters on Friday.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim)