Sep 21, 2012
Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 maker of memory chips, will halve its facility investment in the semiconductor business next year, local daily Kyunghyang Shinmun reported Wednesday.
Samsung planned to reduce its capital expenditure in 2013, will probably cut its facility investment by up to 50 percent next year on an on-year basis, the paper said.
"Samsung's 2013 semiconductor capex will be conducted in a very conservative way. Opinions are gathering into a significant cut in facility investment next year," a senior official at Samsung was quoted as saying.
A Samsung official said by phone that nothing has been decided yet.
Samsung has been proceeding this year with its largest investment into the chip business in its history. It planned to spend 7 trillion won ($6.27 billion) for memory chip investment and 8 trillion won for non-memory investment respectively in 2012.
The reported cut in investment came as conditions continued to worsen in the global semiconductor industry due to a drop in chip prices stemming from oversupply.
Market watchers said the expected cut will resolve the problem of supply glut. "Oversupply in the memory market is likely to be resolved, and prices should gradually increase. Thus, we believe that market conditions are likely to improve from 2013," said James Song, an analyst with Daewoo Securities.
Source: GLOBAL TIMES