A signing ceremony between SK Hynix and Wuxi is held in Nanjing, Jiangsu province on Jan 28. [Photo/wxrb.com]

South Korea-based semiconductor supplier SK Hynix agreed to deepen cooperation with Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, according to an online meeting held in Nanjing on Jan 28.

The new deal will promote further technical upgrades and product iteration of SK Hynix's Wuxi factory to improve its global performance and increase its production capacity, said officials.

According to the agreement, SK Hynix's Wuxi factory will upgrade its technology level to 14-16nm, increase production efficiency by 27 percent and reduce energy consumption by nearly 40 percent. The Wuxi factory will become the world's largest DRAM supply base.

As a global leader in semiconductors, SK Hynix is one of Wuxi's most important foreign partners. It has invested around $20 billion in the city since 2005, making it the foreign enterprise with the largest single investment in the city and the most advanced semiconductor production technology in Jiangsu.

SK Group's investment in Wuxi accounted for two-thirds of the company's total investment in China, and the city is now home to the company's Chinese sales headquarters.

In 2020, SK Hynix agreed to build the Sino-South Korea IC Industrial Park in Wuxi, aiming to strengthen the high-quality development of the IC industry in Wuxi by attracting more upstream and downstream projects in its industrial chain. The office building will finish construction by the end of 2023.

In addition to factories and headquarters, SK Hynix also built a school and a hospital in Wuxi.