Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, started work on a semiconductor plant in central China on Wednesday as part of its move to diversify production lines and meet growing demand for chips.

The company said earlier it will initially inject $2.3 billion to build the plant in Xian, China. The spending on the construction will reach up to $7.0 billion in the coming years, making the project Samsung’s single largest overseas investment for a chipmaking plant, according to the company.

Samsung currently operates another overseas semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas.

The construction project will be completed by the end of next year, with 10 nano-level NAND flash memory chips to be produced from 2014 onwards, Samsung said.

Samsung said earlier it had selected Xian because the region has good industrial and information technology infrastructure.

Such an environment will allow Samsung to gain easy access to electricity and water, and makes it possible to work with related companies on research and development, the company said. (Yonhap News)