A US$15 Billion Plant
Samsung Electronics has started a countdown to the full operation of its second semiconductor plant in Xian, China.
Samsung (China) Semiconductor Co. in Xian, China, is currently hiring testing and packaging engineers. Industry experts say that the recruitment of such engineers shows that the plant’s full operation is imminent, as test and packaging are the final stages of a semiconductor production process.
Earlier, Samsung Electronics decided to invest US$15 billion in its plant in Xian, China, its only overseas memory semiconductor production base. After making US$7 billion first-stage investment in August 2017, it invested US$8 billion in the second stage in 2019. A line built through the first-stage investment already started to roll out products in March 2020. Another line established with the second-stage investment is expected to operate in the middle of 2021.
Samsung Electronics’ Xian campus consists of Plant 1 and Plant 2. When the second-stage investment is completed, Plant 2 will have a NAND flash production capacity of 130,000 sheets of wafer per month. Plant 1’s production capacity is 120,000 sheets of wafer per month. The combined production volume of 250,000 wafers per month amounts to about half of Samsung Electronics' estimated NAND flash production volume in 2020.
Samsung Electronics maintained its dominance in the global NAND flash market in the first quarter of 2021, accounting for a 33.3 percent share. The Korean semiconductor giant was followed by Kioxia (18.2 percent), WDC (14.2 percent), SK Hynix (12 percent), Micron Technology (11.4 percent) and Intel (7.3 percent), according to Counterpoint Research.
However, as Micron succeeded in developing a 176-layer NAND flash for the first time in the world in 2020, it is posing a threat to Samsung. SK Hynix has invested more than 10 trillion won to buy the NAND Business Division from Intel. Samsung Electronics has already secured the technology to produce 8th-generation V-NAND products with more than 200 layers.