Samsung Electronics Invests 37 Trillion Won in Largest

Semiconductor Factory in the World

[Anchor]

Samsung Electronics began operations of the world's largest semiconductor factory in Pyeongtaek.

Samsung Electronics is planning to invest a total of 37 trillion won in the semiconductor and display industries in Korea.

Kim Jang-hyeon has more.

[Reporter]

Samsung Electronics finished test operations of the production line for the world's largest semiconductor factory in the Godeok Industrial Complex located in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and began normal operations.

The size of the Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex is 2.89 million square meters, which is equivalent to 400 football fields.

As its first step, Samsung Electronics invested 15.6 trillion KRW in order to build semiconductor production plant 1.

This factory is the world's largest for a single production line, with roughly 12,000 construction workers a day on average.

On this new factory, 4th generation 64 Layer V Nand flash memory chips, vertically layered with 3-D memory cells, will be manufactured.

These flash memories will be utilized in smartphones, etc. as these have 30 percent better speed and energy efficiency when compared with existing semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics started the extension of the Pyeongtaek plant and established the infrastructure for semiconductors in the future by investing 6 trillion won in the Hwaseong semiconductor factory as well. Thus, Samsung Electronics decided to invest a total of 37 trillion won by 2021, including investments made so far.

Furthermore, Samsung Electronics decided to review the extension of the Samsung Display OLED Factory located in the Asan South Chungcheong Province and extension of the semiconductor line in Xian, China.

Samsung Electronics explained that investments in the Pyeongtaek factory and elsewhere would result in production inducement effects worth 63 trillion won and offer 440,000 new jobs.

<Kang Chang-jin / Executive Director at Samsung Electronics>
"We hope to enhance the competitiveness of the component industry, as well as contributing to create more jobs by making large scale investments in the semiconductor and display workplaces in Hwaseong, Asan and Pyeongtaek-si."

This is the biggest facility investment made by a single conglomerate in Korea. However, the product launching ceremony was held quietly, considering President Lee Kun-hee is hospitalized and Vice President Lee Jae-yong is currently under arrest.

Kim Jang-hyeon reporting for Yonhap News TV.

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