[THE INVESTOR] Korean chipmakers, including the top two
Samsung Electronics and
SK hynix, are expected to pour a combined 37.8 trillion won (US$33 billion) into wafer fabrication equipment or WFE in the next three years.
Starting US$10.02 billion this year, the companies will invest more than US$10 billion every year in the coming years, according to a recent research jointly conducted by market research firm Gartner and chip equipment giant Applied Materials.
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Samsung’s wafer fabrication facility in Xian, China |
Considering other facility investments such as plant construction, the total investment volume could be a lot more, the report said.
Korean companies make up more than 30 percent of the global WFE investments every year.
In the meantime, the report predicted that demand for organic light-emitting diode panels that are widely used not only in smartphones but also tablets, wearables and cars could surge at an annual growth rate of 21 percent from this year to 2020.
“The mobile OLED market will see a robust growth with its wider adoption by smartphone-makers,” said Kang In-doo, head of Applied Materials Korea.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
