Samsung to invest an extra $8 billion in China chip plant - media

By Hyunjoo Jin and Josh HORWITZ

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics will increase investment at its chip factory in China by $8 billion (6.24 billion pounds) to boost production of NAND flash memory chips, Chinese media reported on Tuesday.

The South Korean group's investment comes as the memory market is expected to rebound next year because of limited supplies and rising demand for fifth-generation devices and networks.

Samsung is the world's largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, which can hold data permanently and are found in mobile devices, memory cards, USB flash drives and solid-state drives.

In 2017, Samsung announced that it would invest $7 billion over three years in its Xi'an plant that produces NAND flash memory chips.

Those investment phases follow an earlier $10.8 billion investment into a testing and packaging plant in Xi'an.

Samsung declined to comment.

Samsung's rivals in NAND flash memory include Korea's SK Hynix <000660.KS>, U.S.-based Micron Technology Inc <MU.O>, and Toshiba Corp <6502.T>

Several Chinese companies have attempted to enter the memory sector, though none has been successful enough to compete with overseas rivals.

This past autumn, Yangtze Memory Technologies Company (YMTC) announced it would begin mass producing 64-layer 3D NAND chips, the benchmark for most leading industry players.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)