SK hynix Inc. reported its third-quarter earnings Wednesday, falling short of analysts' expectations on the top and bottom lines, amid a cyclical downturn of the global semiconductor industry.

The chipmaker's third-quarter net income was 1.1 trillion won ($769.4 million), down 66.7 percent from a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing.

Operating profit for the three months ending in September came to 1.65 trillion won, compared with 4.17 trillion won a year ago. Sales fell 7 percent to 10.98 trillion won.

The earnings missed market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 1.83 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

SK hynix makes most of its profits from selling memory chips, but the macro economic woes, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, soaring inflation and rising interest rates, led consumers to tighten their spending on electronics products that need such semiconductors.

"Revenues fell quarter-on-quarter as both sales volume and price decreased due to sluggish demand for DRAM and NAND products amid the worsening macroeconomic environment worldwide," the company said in a statement, adding, "Operating profit also decreased due to greater price drops than cost reduction."

A highly cyclical chip industry has entered a downturn following a strong, pandemic-fueled boom for the past few years as demand soared for chips that power every electronic product from smartphones and computers to cars.

The company noted "an unprecedented deterioration in market conditions" amid market uncertainties as "the shipments of PCs and smartphone manufacturers, which are major buyers of memory chips, have decreased."

Given the uncertainties, the chipmaker said it will cut its investment by half next year from this year's volume estimated at the upper range of 10-20 trillion won.

It also plans to gradually reduce production of relatively less profitable products, the company said, without elaborating. (Yonhap)