Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chip maker, has unveiled a $33 billion investment plan to add eight fabrication and one R&D line to a semiconductor plant in South Korea by 2012.

Lifted by the investment, Samsung expects its semiconductor sales to reach $61 billion in 2012, more than treble the $17.5 billion in sales in 2004, the company said in a statement.
Samsung said the aggressive investments should enable the company to meet new demand.
Memory chipmakers have huge capital spending requirements as production moves to finer circuitry technology that makes chips smaller and helps cut manufacturing costs. The lines would be added to Samsung’s Hwaseong semiconductor plant, south of Seoul and nearby Kiheung, its main semiconductor fabrication site.
“When completed in 2012, Samsung’s Kiheung-Hwaseong complex will be the world’s largest semiconductor fabrication facility,” it said.
Of the eight new fabrication lines, four will be designed for higher capacities using a 300 mm or larger wafer unit, Samsung said. One of the lines is now under construction and will be introduced in the first half of 2006.
Samsung did not give annual breakdowns of the investment and a spokeswoman said the $33 billion plan did not represent all of the company’s investment plans in chips. For 2005, Samsung has allocated a 6 trillion won ($5.8 billion) investment in the semiconductor business. Samsung is also considering entering the chip foundry business, while the head of its semiconductor business, Hwang Chang-gyu, said Samsung would soon decide whether to expand chip production in the US.
Meanwhile, global sales of semiconductors rose again in August after stalling in July due to rising energy prices, keeping the chip industry on track for 6 per cent growth in 2005, a survey said.
Total revenues were $18.58 billion in August, up 3.2 per cent versus July and 1.7 per cent versus the same month in 2004, according to data published by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) group. The WSTS has 72 member companies that account for around 85 per cent of the world’s chip production.
The year-to-date growth rate is 5.8 per cent versus the same period of 2004, keeping the industry on track for 6 percent growth in 2005 even after record sales in 2004, said the US-based Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).