By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the world's top memory chip makers, plan to invest a combined 19 trillion won in the semiconductor segment this year, up from 17.7 trillion won last year, sources and fund managers said Monday.
"The total spending by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix for this year will be 19 trillion won. They are comfortable with current market conditions and seek to maintain a balance between supply and demand," said an official at a U.S.-based hedge fund by telephone.
The manager, who asked not to be named, said the fund will buy more Samsung and SK hynix stocks in accordance with stabilization-first business strategies.
Samsung Electronics plans to invest around 13.5 trillion won. SK hynix, the semiconductor affiliate of the SK Group, plans to invest 5.5 trillion won.
A Samsung official said the world's top supplier in memory chips doesn't expect a huge change in the overall level of its spending on chip facilities.
"Samsung's volume growth in 2015 will be minimized. Samsung plans to spend more on flash-type memory and processor chips. The ramp up of Line 17 will be flexible," said the official.
Samsung invested 12.6 trillion on chip plants in 2013, 13.85 trillion won in 2012 and 13.03 trillion won in 2011.
SK hynix also has no plans to markedly increase production capacity in the first half of the year.
For SK hynix, the supply and demand outlook is positive, with demand for corporate servers and conventional PCs still strong.
"Total spending by SK hynix will rise to 5.5 trillion won as the company plans to invest 300 billion won for a new local plant dubbed, M14, which will be operational from the latter half of this year. The new plant will get new equipment and because of the company's continued efforts to migrate to thinner technology, more spending will be needed," said an official who is familiar with the issue.
SK hynix invested some 4.7 trillion won last year.
In a New Year's message to employees, SK hynix CEO Park Sung-wook said the company will put its priority this year on further strengthening its competitiveness in memory chips.
"We should push up production yields. Clients need to procure high-quality memory chips with stability. Our initiatives should be based on pure memory chips," Park said in a press release.
Unlike Samsung Electronics, which manages logic-based chips such as processors, SK hynix generates 76 percent of its annual sales from DRAM chips, with NAND chips accounting for 21 percent, and non-memory chips 3 percent.
The global memory chip industry is controlled by three top players _ Samsung, SK hynix and Micron Technologies of the United States. They produce more than 93 percent of global chips, according to research firms.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the world's top memory chip makers, plan to invest a combined 19 trillion won in the semiconductor segment this year, up from 17.7 trillion won last year, sources and fund managers said Monday.
"The total spending by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix for this year will be 19 trillion won. They are comfortable with current market conditions and seek to maintain a balance between supply and demand," said an official at a U.S.-based hedge fund by telephone.
The manager, who asked not to be named, said the fund will buy more Samsung and SK hynix stocks in accordance with stabilization-first business strategies.
Samsung Electronics plans to invest around 13.5 trillion won. SK hynix, the semiconductor affiliate of the SK Group, plans to invest 5.5 trillion won.
A Samsung official said the world's top supplier in memory chips doesn't expect a huge change in the overall level of its spending on chip facilities.
"Samsung's volume growth in 2015 will be minimized. Samsung plans to spend more on flash-type memory and processor chips. The ramp up of Line 17 will be flexible," said the official.
Samsung invested 12.6 trillion on chip plants in 2013, 13.85 trillion won in 2012 and 13.03 trillion won in 2011.
SK hynix also has no plans to markedly increase production capacity in the first half of the year.
For SK hynix, the supply and demand outlook is positive, with demand for corporate servers and conventional PCs still strong.
"Total spending by SK hynix will rise to 5.5 trillion won as the company plans to invest 300 billion won for a new local plant dubbed, M14, which will be operational from the latter half of this year. The new plant will get new equipment and because of the company's continued efforts to migrate to thinner technology, more spending will be needed," said an official who is familiar with the issue.
SK hynix invested some 4.7 trillion won last year.
In a New Year's message to employees, SK hynix CEO Park Sung-wook said the company will put its priority this year on further strengthening its competitiveness in memory chips.
"We should push up production yields. Clients need to procure high-quality memory chips with stability. Our initiatives should be based on pure memory chips," Park said in a press release.
Unlike Samsung Electronics, which manages logic-based chips such as processors, SK hynix generates 76 percent of its annual sales from DRAM chips, with NAND chips accounting for 21 percent, and non-memory chips 3 percent.
The global memory chip industry is controlled by three top players _ Samsung, SK hynix and Micron Technologies of the United States. They produce more than 93 percent of global chips, according to research firms.
