This photo, taken on Oct. 20, 2020, shows South Korean chipmaker SK hynix Inc.’s plant in Icheon, south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 5 (Korea Bizwire) — SK hynix Inc. said Wednesday it received the AAA certification from the South Korean government for a voluntary compliance trader of strategic assets.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy upgraded SK hynix’s status by one notch to the highest level of the three-tier system for trading key products and technologies that are of national security importance, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker said.
“The AAA ratings are given to the companies with the export control compliance programs that are in line with the export control regulations and international trade standard, where the companies have the ability to independently determine whether an item is classified as a strategic item as well as the ability to analyze the end-users.” SK hynix said in a press release.
The ministry oversees management of strategic assets to safeguard national security and ensure stable market conditions.
The upgrade came as governments around the world have been racing to secure and protect semiconductors, one of the most coveted technologies that are crucial to industrial value chains of everything from consumer electronics to automobiles to military supplies.
SK hynix became a self-compliance trader of strategic assets back in 2005, along with Samsung Electronics Co., for the first time for South Korean businesses. It had maintained the AA level since 2014.
(Yonhap)
