MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - Technology giant, Samsung, has announced plans to invest some 15.6 trillion won (approximately $15 billion) in building a new semiconductor fabrication plant in South Korea, the company announced in an official statement on Monday.
"The new fabrication plant is expected to help Samsung meet growing demand for advanced semiconductor products, while also further solidifying the company's global presence and market leadership by realizing its vision for a globally balanced semiconductor fabrication network," Samsung wrote on its website.
The municipal governments of Gyeonggi Province have agreed to cooperate with Samsung in building and operating the new plant with construction scheduled to begin in Pyeongtaek in 2015. According to the company's statement, the building on the 790,000 square meter site is scheduled to be completed by 2017. The new investment is double the cost of Samsung's largest overseas factory in China.
"Our investment into the new fabrication plant will significantly influence the shaping of Samsung's future semiconductor business. We sincerely thank Gyeonggi Province and Pyeongtaek for their full support," CEO and Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, Dr. Oh-Hyun Kwon said during the signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding (MOU) supporting construction of the facility in the company's Godeok Industrial Complex.
The factory will manufacture both memory and processor chips and the company could reportedly invest more money into the project after the initial investment, according to the International Business Times.
In South Korea, Samsung has memory chip production lines in Hwaseong and facilities in Giheung which focus on logic chips. The company also has semiconductor plants in China and the United States.
