Samsung Electronics To Boost DRAM Investment By 20%
Saturday, February 27, 1999
SEOUL (Nikkei)--Samsung Electronics Co. plans to expand investment in dynamic random-access memory production by 20% to 1.2 billion dollars in 1999, company executives told The Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Friday. Chip sales are forecast to rise 10% during the year as a result.
The move is aimed at boosting production of 128-megabit and higher DRAMs. Samsung hopes to raise monthly output of such chips to over 10 million units by the end of the year.
"We expect the global DRAM market to tighten as Japanese rivals hold down investment," an executive said. "Now is our chance to boost production."
Most of the funds will be used to raise capacity and improve existing facilities at the firm's Kiheung plant. The company intends to maintain output of 64M DRAMs at the current level of 15 million chips per month, with the investment to be used for adding higher-capacity DRAM production.
Should it go ahead with the spending plan, Samsung will dwarf Japanese producers. Both NEC Corp.(6701) and Toshiba Corp. (6502), two of the largest Japanese microchip makers, plan to curtail semiconductor-related investment in fiscal 1999, to 100 billion yen and 120 billion yen, respectively.
The South Korean firm cut output 25% by idling facilities in April-October 1998, but production has been rising again since November. |
