Samsung starts building 4th semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek

The world's largest DRAM supplier Samsung Electronics Co. is accelerating its move to expand production capacities at its manufacturing complex in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Recently, it placed orders worth 1 trillion won ($788.6 million) of building and power infrastructure to its construction affiliates, Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung Engineering.

According to a regulatory filing on Monday, Samsung Engineering won orders worth 793.8 billion won for a substation and other facilities at Pyeongtaek Line 4, a new factory also known as P4. 

Samsung Heavy Industries will be responsible for finishing the construction of P4 production buildings at 168.3 billion won.

The construction period for the two is until October next year.

Samsung started foundation work on the P4 factory in September with the goal of completing the construction in 2024.

In 2012, Samsung secured a factory site of 3.9 million square meters, the size of 500 soccer fields, in Pyeongtaek, where it plans to build a total of six plants.

So far, it has completed three plants, P1, P2, and P3, and will build three more including P4 by 2030.

"Samsung is speeding up its pace to bolster global production capacity," commented industry sources.

Currently, Samsung is also building a high-tech foundry plant in Taylor, Texas.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com