Samsung Electronics Co Ltd(KRX: 005930) is planning to invest at least 21.4 trillion won ($18.63 billion) in South Korea as it seeks to enhance their lead in memory chips and next-generation displays for smartphones and is seeking to boost momentum for its booming components businesses. Samsung Electronics plan includes 14.4 trillion won for its new NAND memory plant in Pyeongtaek by 2021 to increase output, and 6 trillion won to build another semiconductor production line at its existing Hwaseong complex. Samsung has also planned to add a production line to its NAND plant in Xi’an, China, in response to the increase in demand for long-term data storage chips. The company has not disclosed the investment amount or time frame.

Moreover, Samsung’s investment plan has come as new South Korean President Moon Jae-in calls on local businesses to create more jobs and help reinvigorate the economy. Samsung’s South Korea investment is expected to create up to 440,000 jobs through 2021 and will help boost the economy.

Furthermore, In China, some South Korean firms have suffered from sales decline or are forced to scale down operations after retaliatory measures from Beijing over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system outside Seoul, however, the components makers such as Samsung have not yet been affected. Chinese smartphone makers are among the biggest buyers of memory chips and displays, many from Samsung. The South Korean firm accounted for 40.4 percent of global memory chip revenue in January-March, showed data from researcher TrendForce, making it difficult for electronics makers to entirely avoid buying its chips. China is trying to grow its own memory chip producers but it may take several years before Chinese companies can compete with existing makers. (Source: CNBC)

Additionally, Samsung, Toshiba and SK Hynix have committed tens of billions of dollars to increase the NAND output in recent years, but the analysts and industry sources expect the shortages are likely to persist at least through 2017 as new facilities will not make meaningful supply contributions until next year.

Some analysts are projecting that the additional capacity could cause slight oversupply in early 2018, but that price crashes are unlikely as smartphone makers opt for greater internal storage. The demand for high-end server storage for cloud computing and virtual reality applications are also expected to grow.

In addition, the unit of Samsung, Samsung Display has planned to invest around 1 trillion won on a new organic light-emitting diode display complex in South Korea.