Recently, Samsung Electronics’ Nand Flash plant in Xian, China has completed its second plant expansion and started full-scale production. The plant completed the second phase expansion last month after the first phase at the end of 2021.
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To be noted the second plant has been operating at full capacity since the beginning of March. The plant can process 130,000 sheets of 12-inch layers per month, with 120,000 sheets per month in the first plant. Accordingly, Nand Flash production at Samsung Electronics’ own Xian plant reached 250,000 sheet wafers per month.
According to the report, this volume accounts for over 40% of Samsung Electronics’ total NAND flash output. Samsung Zion Plant has the largest production capacity in the world at NAND Flash Factories.
Also, Samsung Electronics initially planned to invest US $7 billion (8.533 trillion won) in the construction of the first plant. However, as the line was extended and back-end processes were added, total investment increased to the US $10.87 billion ($13.25 trillion won).
Samsung hopes the Xian Plant will intensify its Nand Flash competitiveness. By the fourth quarter of 2021, the company maintained its top position in the industry with US $6.11 billion (7.448 trillion won) NAND flash sales and a 33.1 percent market share.
However, SK Hynix and Micron technologies in the United States lag far behind Samsung. For example, SK Hynix acquired the NAND Flash division from Intel and Micron succeeded in massively producing the first 176-layer product from Samsung.
Industry insiders expect Samsung Electronics’ NAND Flash market share to increase from 35 percent to 40 percent as the second Xian plant goes live.
