[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics said on March 14 that it is set to start construction of its second V-NAND Flash memory chip manufacturing line in Xian, China.

“The construction to add a second line, announced in August last year, will start later this month,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Investor, adding other details, including the production capacity of facilities, are the same as previously planned.

The new production facilities will roll out V-NAND flash memory chips, which stack cell vertically instead of horizontally, from next year. The memory chips are mainly used in solid-state drives, which are increasingly replacing conventional hard disk drives.

The company will invest 8 trillion won (US$7.50 billion) by 2020 to build the second memory chip line and plans to start building an additional chip manufacturing line in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

As of 2017, Samsung topped the global NAND flash market, with its market share accounting for 42.8 percent of the entire segment, while Toshiba and Seagate captured 17.2 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively. Korean chipmaker SK hyinx came fourth with its market share standing at 12.2 percent, according to research firm IDC.

When the planned acquisition of Toshiba by a consortium led by Bane Capital and SK hynix takes place this year, the Korean chipmaker will become the second-largest NAND flash maker.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)