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Total Combined Capex of Four Taiwanese DRAM Makers Is Less than Samsung's

Samsung's capex is almost twice that of Inotera, Nanya, Powerchip and ProMOS combined

Dec 4, 2009 11:10 GMT  ·  By
Samsung's capex is greater than that of four distinct Taiwan-based corporations combined
   Samsung's capex is greater than that of four distinct Taiwan-based corporations combined

After being found to have been one of the only two corporations that were not negatively affected by the general downturn of the semiconductor market, the other being Mediatek, Samsung seems to have topped the combined performance of four companies in a different area, namely that of capital expenditure.

The four corporations that were compared with Samsung by Digitimes are Inotera Memories, Nanya Technology, Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation and ProMOS Technologies. These four enterprises combined have a total capex of slightly over NT$70 billion, which is the equivalent of US$2.18 billion. This development comes after Nanya and Inotera predicted, in their previous reports, that their individual capex would amount to NT$19 billion and NT$45 billion, respectively, even though the initially allocated sums for 2009 were of NT$13 billion and NT$12.7-13.7.

Samsung's reported capex is currently of about US$4 billion, whereas that of Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation is of less than NT$10 billion, as is ProMOS's capex. The latter reportedly set 2010's capex at NT$ 6billion, the equivalent of US$185.44 million.

Samsung's most recent financial report indicated that the company expected total capital expenditures to reach four trillion won in 2009 and 5.5 trillion won in 2010. This, according to an unnamed source for Korea Herald, might occur as a consequence of Samsung's intention to invest, during 2010, about seven trillion won in its semiconductor business, with two trillion aimed at the NAND flash memory and system LSI segments and the remaining five intended for the DRAM sector.

"Lee Youn-woo, chief executive of Samsung Electronics, and Kwon Oh-hyun, president of Samsung's semiconductor division, said in November the company looks to invest around 7 trillion won in its semiconductor business next year," a high-ranking industry official told The Korea Herald on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"The DRAM market will do far better than this year. I expect Samsung to invest more than 5.5 trillion won in its semiconductor business next year," Suh Do-won, an analyst at Hanhwa Securities, added. "Samsung previously spent as much as 7 trillion won on its semiconductor business. When there is a clear sign of economic improvement, Samsung will increase its investments."