Samsung will be investing KRW 17 trillion (US $15 billion) in 3-D NAND flash memory chips and OLED panels, that are both key smartphone components to stay ahead of competition, reported The Korean Herald.
The Korean company suggested it would invest KRW 26 trillion in 2016, an incremental increase from last year’s KRW 25.52 trillion. In the first half of this year, the company spent KRW 8.8 trillion.
“We will focus on 3-D NAND and OLED this year considering their soaring demand,” said Lee Myung-jin, the company’s investor relations executive director.
With key rivals such as SK Hynix and Micron Technology struggling to profit in the second quarter, due to slowing smartphone and PC sales, Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chipmaker reported KRW 2.54 trillion in memory chip sales alone, a modest growth compared to last year.
Samsung Display, the conglomerate’s display unit injected more than KRW 10 trillion into smaller OLED panels for smartphone manufacturing before planning to supply to Apple’s next generation iPhones.
The company aims to raise production capacity from 60,000 panels per month to 75,000 panels by 2016. Analyst estimates, the company will invest KRW 15 trillion by the end of next year.
Samsung’s rival LG Display announced it would spend another KRW 2 trillion to make smaller OLED panels, while Samsung takes a 97% stake of the mobile OLED market. LG aims to secure some of Apple orders when the production lines begin operations in 2018.
