Anchor: The two main South Korean producers of semiconductors are expected to make record investments to upgrade their facilities this year. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are likely to invest up to 30 trillion won, or about 26-point-seven billion U.S. dollars.
Our Park Jong-hong has this report.
 
Report: The two South Korean tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, plan to invest a whopping 30 trillion won amid the boom in mobile and computer chips.
 
Industry sources said Wednesday Samsung already injected 12-point-five trillion won, or about eleven-point-one billion dollars in facility investment in the first half of this year.
 
This is almost as much as the total investment of last year at 13-point-one trillion won.
 
South Korea’s number one chipmaker aims to boost investments in V-NAND flash and image sensor products.
 
A Samsung official said this is in line with the projected demand for chips in the mid- to long-term.
 
SK Hynix has decided to invest nine-point-six trillion won in facilities, an all-time high, with a focus on expanding production capacities for dynamic random-access memory or DRAM chips and NAND flash memory.
 
This is an increase from the initially planned investment of seven trillion won.
 
A company official said the plan is to cope with the market's rising demand for DRAM and NAND flash products, while preparing for a long-term future.
 
However, industry experts say the rising amount of investment could lead to an excessive surge of production capacity, which in turn could lead to a production surplus and decrease in prices.
Park Jong-hong KBS World Radio News.