The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips said this week it will invest 20.4 trillion won by 2021 to expand and upgrade its chip plants in the South Korean cities of Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong.
The factory in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres (44 miles) south of Seoul, is the world’s biggest and has recently started production after Samsung Electronics spent 15.6 trillion won over the past two years to build it.
The company also plans to expand its NAND chip plant in the Chinese city of Xian to meet booming demand for the chips used in high-end storage products, it said.
In smartphones, Samsung has been increasingly sandwiched by smaller Chinese rivals in the low and mid-end markets, and by Apple’s iPhone in the high-end segment.
But the firm managed to post stellar profits partly thanks to the robust chip business, which supplies not only to its own handset unit but also other electronics giants including Apple.
It suffered a blow to its reputation last year after a humiliating mass recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone over faulty, exploding batteries.
Refurbished devices — featuring batteries with a slightly smaller capacity — went on sale Friday in South Korea.
