ChainThink report, August 11: According to South Korean media The Korea Economic Daily, Solidigm, a NAND subsidiary of SK Hynix, plans to restart construction of the second phase of its NAND flash memory production facility in Dalian, China, with equipment relocation expected to begin in November this year and full commercial operation scheduled for early next year.

The Dalian Phase II project had been stalled for an extended period due to weak NAND market conditions, inventory adjustments, and U.S. restrictions on semiconductor equipment exports to China.

With rising demand for enterprise-grade solid-state drives (eSSDs) driven by the expansion of AI data centers, SK Hynix has decided to resume investment to expand NAND capacity.

The current Dalian Phase I facility has a monthly output capacity of approximately 100,000 wafers. Upon completion of Phase II, an additional monthly capacity of about 50,000 wafers is expected, increasing overall capacity by approximately 50%.

SK Hynix plans to produce mature-node NAND at the Dalian site, while high-end NAND products will continue to be concentrated at its M17 plant in Cheongju, South Korea.