July 10, 2002 – Seoul, Korea – Samsung Electronics Co. said it plans to invest an additional 160.8 billion won (US$137.8M) to upgrade two of its 13 existing semiconductor production lines at its Kiheung plant.

Samsung said the additional investment is necessary due to an increase in demand for SRAM and flash memory chips, Dow Jones reported.

So far this year, Samsung Electronics has invested KRW715.9 billion on its semiconductor manufacturing operations, a company spokesman said.

The 13 production lines need about 13,840 employees, and the company plans to retain the current staff count, the spokesman said.

The announcement came after Samsung Electronics disclosed last week that its cash position at the end of the second quarter amounted to about KRW5.5 trillion.

Samsung recently denied a local media report that said the company is considering raising its capital expenditure for this year to more than KRW1 trillion to expand the production of memory chips, thin transistor LCDs, and mobile phone handsets. Samsung Electronics said it is maintaining a “conservative” investment plan due to a depressed semiconductor market.