Demand for phones boosts Samsung's investment

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Samsung Electronics plans to invest a record 38 trillion won ($33.9 billion) in facilities and R&D next year, a 27 per cent jump from an estimated 30 trillion won this year, local media reported on Wednesday, citing Samsung and industry officials.

Edaily reported that the company plans to sharply boost spending on its "system LSI business," which includes microprocessor chips used in Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S, and OLED displays mainly used in Samsung's mobile devices.

Strong sales of mobile chips and displays, propelled by robust demand for smartphones and tablets, helped Samsung better cope with weakness in its traditional memory chips and displays used in PCs and TVs.

The world's top memory chip maker plans to spend around 15 trillion won in its chip business next year, out of which about 8 trillion won will be used in the system LSI business, the report said.

The report also said Samsung, a leading flat-screen maker, plans to boost investment on OLED displays to 7 trillion won and halve its investment in liquid crystal display (LCD) facilities to 2 trillion won next year.

A Samsung spokesman declined to comment on the report