[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics’ reported plans to heavily invest in production lines for 3-D NAND flash memory chips could lead to earnings rise for South Korean chip equipment manufacturers in the second half of the year.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of memory chips, has not revealed how much it will spend on boosting the production capacity of 3-D NAND chips, which are widely used for smartphones and other smart devices.

But market watchers have speculated that Samsung has begun a multibillion dollar investment to increase the production capacity of chips.

Analysts expected local chip equipment makers -- Eugene Technology, TES and Wonik IPS -- are likely to benefit from the apparent investment plan by Samsung.

Samsung is expected to account for more than half of Eugene Technology’s annual sales this year. In the first half of the year, Eugene Technology reported an operating profit of 26.5 billion won (US$23.70 million), compared with 10.1 billion won for the same period last year.

Another chip equipment maker, TES, also reported handsome results in the first half of 2016, aided by a rise in the equipment supply to Samsung.

TES posted an operating profit of 16.4 billion won for the January-June period, more than double from the same period last year.

()