The world’s second largest chipmaker and fifth largest semiconductor company will invest $1.8 billion in constructing the new facility in Cheongju, scheduled for completion sometime in 2019. Construction on the cleanroom and the shell (partitioned area around the cleanroom) will begin in August 2017, while the whole facility’s estimated completion date is in June 2018. The facility is expected to produce 3D NAND flash exclusively during its initial stages, and will later diversity into DRAM chip production as well.
The company originally set up its Cheongju factory in 2008 and has been using it for increasing NAND flash memory production for smartphones, SSDs and data centers. The company says its expansion plans are part of an effort to meet increasing demands for 3D NAND flash memory, in part due to the larger storage capacities of recent mobile devices.
M14 plant will increase 3D NAND production
In August 2015, the company marked completion of a separate plant in Incheon, South Korea called M14. Now, it is looking to spend up to $829 million to develop three additional plants. Starting next year, the upper floor the M14 will be used to manufacture 3D NAND flash for increased production output, according to company officials.
In terms of memory production overall, the South Korean company is currently the runner up next to Samsung Electronics, but is ranked fifth place in terms of NAND flash memory production, according to IHS. As of December 12th, the country’s semiconductor exports were listed at $27 billion, up 11.6 percent year-over-year.
China plant expansion will strengthen DRAM output
The company has also made plans to invest $787 million into expanding its DRAM facility in Wuxi, China between July 2017 and April 2019. This facility was founded in 2006 and has been a primary contributor to the company’s growth in this sector, accounting for over half of overall DRAM production. As more complex manufacturing processes begin to emerge, the company’s overall output capacity per square foot is expected to decrease with time. The expansion of its Chinese factory will help account for some of the lost production time as a result of developing smaller process nodes.
