Samsung invest $3.6 bln in US plant

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, said Thursday it would spend 3.6 billion dollars to expand its US plant to meet growing demand.

The investment will be used to build two new production lines at the factory in Austin, Texas, for large system integration (LSI) chips for TVs and mobile phones, the South Korean firm said. The US plant, which opened in 1996, is the firm's only overseas production line and mainly produces flash memory chips for MP3 players and digital cameras.

"The new investment is to meet the growing demand for LSI chips," a company spokeswoman told AFP. Samsung last month announced plans to invest a record 26 trillion won (22.7 billion dollars) this year to cater for a global uptick in demand and reinforce its market dominance. It said 18 trillion won would be spent on new facilities, including 11 trillion for semiconductor plants and five trillion for LCD panel production, while eight trillion won would be spent on research and development.