Samsung Electronics last year’s facility investment 38.5 trillion won… R&D expenditure’the largest ever’

The largest since 2017 during the semiconductor boom period… Investing 32.9 trillion won in semiconductors alone

Last year, Samsung Electronics made more than 38 trillion won in facility investment. Among them, the R&D expenditure reached the highest level ever, exceeding 20 trillion won.

In its 2020 business report released on the 9th, Samsung Electronics announced that last year’s facility investment amounted to 38 trillion won, an increase of 11 trillion won compared to the previous year.

This is the largest since 2017, when the semiconductor boom was 43.4 trillion won. A total of 32.9 trillion won was invested in semiconductors, 3.9 trillion won in displays, and 1.7 trillion won in other facilities.

In the case of memory semiconductors, investment has increased due to the conversion and expansion of advanced processes, and investment costs in the foundry (consigned semiconductor production) have increased, centering on the EUV 5-nano process.

In the display, investment increased compared to the previous year, focusing on the expansion of QD display production capacity (CAPA) and small and medium-sized new technology processes.

Last year’s R&D expenditure increased by 1 trillion won compared to the previous year, and a total of 21.2 trillion won was invested, recording the highest level ever.

The ratio of R&D expenditure to sales also continued to increase from 7.0% in 2017 to 7.7% in 2018, 8.8% in 2019, and 9.0% last year.

Last year, Samsung Electronics’ top five customers were Apple, Best Buy, Deutsche Telecom, Hong Kong Techtronics, and Verizon, and these five companies accounted for 14% of total sales.

Huawei, one of Samsung Electronics’ major customers, was excluded from the top five customers last year as it stopped supplying parts such as semiconductors from September last year due to US sanctions. Instead, Hong Kong Techtronics, which has increased purchases such as memory semiconductors, was newly included.

Despite the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the number of domestic employees was the highest ever, a total of 109,000. As facility investment expanded, the number of employees employed increased by 4,2,33 compared to the previous year, mainly for semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics’ DRAM market share last year was 43.1% based on the amount, which was a slight decrease from 2019 (43.7%).

However, thanks to the corona-free face-to-face and pent-up demand, the TV market share increased to 31.9% from the previous year (30.9%).

The market share (in terms of quantity) of mobile phones, which was a bit sluggish last year, fell from 17.5% in 2019 to 16.2% last year.

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