SEOUL - Samsung Electronics plans to increase chip production capacity at its largest semiconductor plant in 2023, despite forecasts of an economic slowdown, a South Korean newspaper reported late on Sunday.
The move contrasts with the scaling back of investment by rival chipmakers amid falling demand and a glut of chips.
Analysts have said that Samsung’s persistence with investment plans will likely help it take market share in memory chips and support its share price when demand recovers.
Samsung plans to expand its P3 factory in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, by adding 12-inch wafer capacity for dynamic random access memory chips, the Seoul Economic Daily said, citing unnamed industry sources.
It will also expand the plant with additional 4-nanometer chip capacity, which will be made under foundry contracts – that is, according to clients’ designs – the newspaper said.
P3, which started production of cutting-edge Nand flash memory chips in 2022, is the company’s largest chip manufacturing facility.
Samsung plans to add at least 10 extreme ultraviolet machines in 2023, the newspaper said.
Samsung declined to comment on the report.
In October, it said it was not considering intentionally cutting chip production, defying the broader industry’s tendency to scale back output to meet mid- to long-term demand.
“We plan to stand behind our original infrastructure investment plans,” Mr Han Jin-man, executive vice-president of memory business at Samsung, said then.
In contrast, memory chip rival Micron Technology said last week it will adjust down its investments in fiscal 2023 to between US$7 billion (S$9.5 billion) and US$7.5 billion, compared with US$12 billion in fiscal 2022. It will also be “significantly reducing capex (capital expenditure)” plans in fiscal 2024, it said.
Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC in October cut its 2022 annual investment budget by at least 10 per cent and struck a more cautious note than usual on upcoming demand.
“The chip industry downturn will add to the difficulties of No. 2 and below chip companies, and have a positive impact on the market control of top companies such as Samsung,” Mr Greg Roh, head of research at Hyundai Motor Securities, said in a client note on Monday. REUTERS
