SK hynix Inc., a South Korean chipmaker, reported a 47.5 percent plunge in its third-quarter operating profit that exceeded expectations, thanks to a steady recovery in memory chip prices.

SK hynix said in a regulatory filing that it posted an operating profit of 725.9 billion won ($640.6 million) for the July-September quarter. 

The result beat expectations. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, forecast that SK hynix would post an operating profit of 699.8 billion won for the quarter.

SK hynix posted an operating profit of 1.38 trillion won for the same quarter last year, when prices of memory chips rallied.

Compared with a quarter earlier, SK hynix's third-quarter operating profit jumped 60.3 percent.

Third-quarter net profit plunged 43 percent from a year earlier to 597.7 billion won.

Revenue for the quarter slipped 13.8 percent from a year earlier to 4.2 trillion won.

In a statement, SK hynix expected prices of computer memory chips to remain stable in the coming months, helped by strong demand and reduced inventory.

Kim Jun-ho, president of SK hynix, said in a conference call that the chipmaker spent 1.3 trillion won in facility investment for the July-September quarter.

Kim expected SK hynix to invest a total of 6 trillion won this year to expand production lines.

SK hynix plans to increase its DRAM shipment by 10 percent during the October-December period, Kim said, citing what he calls a "friendly" business outlook for memory chips.  (Yonhap)