The spending is part of the South Korea-based company’s 2008 investment plan of a combined 11 trillion won, with about 64 percent out of it earmarked for memory products such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and flash chips.

Samsung said in a filing to the Korea Exchange that the spending would help maximize production and improve cost competitiveness.

But it did not give more details, nor say which type of memory chips, used in electronic gadgets, the lines will be manufacturing.

Samsung is expected to see its long-suffering chip division turn a corner by the second half after a year-long downward spiral during which prices of some chips lost 90 percent of their value.

Shares of the technology powerhouse lost 4 percent to close at 679,000 won, underperforming the wider market’s 1.5 percent fall, on market talk that mobile phone rival, Nokia, may cut its handset prices and re-enter South Korea.

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