Samsung, the world's No. 1 DRAM supplier and the largest manufacturer of TFT-LCD panels, said approximately $2.3 billion will be spent on completing construction work and equipping the seventh-generation fab located in TangJeong, South Korea. The plant is scheduled to begin volume production in the first half of 2005.

Samsung is angling for a bigger share of the liquid-crystal display market due to growing demand for LCD TVs, which analysts estimate will increase to 17 million units by 2005 from 4.2 million units in 2003.

The company is also hoping to capitalize on surging flash memory sales and a revival in demand for corporate PCs to keep its leadership position in the computer memory market.

In a statement Tuesday (Jan. 13), Samsung said it will invest approximately $960.1 million in 2004 to increase DRAM and flash memory production "to optimize cost efficiencies and meet the increasing demands for semiconductor memories."

The DRAM and flash memory plant, to be located in Hwasung, Gyeonggi-do, will be funded from internally generated cash, the company said.

Samsung started construction work on the seventh-generation TFT-LCD plant in August 2003 with a budget of $281 million for the shell.

"The new capex of $2.3 billion will supply the line with state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment beginning in the second half of 2004," the company said.

The new fab will produce glass substrates capable of yielding 12 32-inch panels and eight, 40-inch panels, about four times the capacity of existing generation-five lines.

Samsung may not have to fund the entire seventh-generation fab alone, however. Last October, the company signed a memorandum to build and operate a joint venture TFT-LCD seventh-generation fab line with Japan's Sony Corp., and may eventually split the cost of the plant with its partner.

The Samsung-Sony TFT-LCD joint venture will be established later this quarter.

By: DocMemory
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