SK Hynix weighs slashing spending by a quarter in 2023 - Bloomberg News

FILE PHOTO: Employees walk past the logo of SK Hynix at its headquarters in Seongnam

(Reuters) -South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc is considering cutting its 2023 capital expenditure by about a quarter to 16 trillion won ($12.16 billion), Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move by SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker after Samsung Electronics, is in response to slower-than-anticipated electronics demand, according to the report.

SK Hynix said it has not decided whether to change its capital expenditure plan for next year.

Chipmakers such as world's largest foundry TSMC and memory chip maker Micron have flagged that demand for consumer electronics is cooling.

High inflation, concerns about a downturn in major markets, China's latest COVID lockdown, and the war in Ukraine have dampened consumer spending on PCs and smartphones, souring the memory chip industry's outlook for next year.

($1 = 1,316.0400 won)

(Reporting by Jose Joseph in Bengaluru and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Lincoln Feast.)