(Reuters) – SEOULEven though the economy is expected to slow down next year, Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) plans to increase chip production at its largest semiconductor plant, a South Korean newspaper said late Sunday.
This is different from what other chipmakers have been doing, which is cutting back on investments because demand is falling and there are too many chips.
Analysts say that Samsung’s (KS:005930) continued investment plans will likely help it get a bigger share of the memory chip market and keep its share price up when demand picks up.
The Seoul Economic Daily said that unnamed industry sources said that Samsung plans to add 12-inch wafers for DRAM memory chips to its P3 factory in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.
It will also add more 4-nanometer chip production capacity. These chips will be made under foundry contracts, which means they will be made based on designs from clients, the paper said.
The company’s biggest chip factory is P3, which started making cutting-edge NAND flash memory chips this year.
The newspaper said that Samsung plans to add at least ten more machines that use extreme ultraviolet light next year.
Samsung didn’t say anything about the report.
In October, it said it had no plans to cut chip production on purpose, which went against the trend of the industry as a whole to cut production to meet mid- to long-term demand.
Han Jin-man, who was then the executive vice president of the memory business at Samsung, said at the time, “We plan to stick to our original plans to invest in infrastructure.”
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), which also makes memory chips, said last week that it would cut its investments in fiscal 2023 from $12 billion in fiscal 2022 to between $7 billion and $7.5 billion. It also said that it would “significantly reduce capex” plans in fiscal 2024.
In October, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC cut its annual investment budget for 2022 by at least 10% and was more cautious than usual about future demand.
Greg Roh, head of research at Hyundai Motor Securities, said in a client note on Monday, “The chip industry downturn will make things worse for No. 2 and below chip companies and help top companies like Samsung control the market.”
