SK hynix said Thursday it would invest a total of 2.2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in its new chip plant in response to the growing demand for NAND flash memory in the global market.

The nation’s second-largest chipmaker will make the investment in its chip plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province from August next year to June 2019.

“The new chip plant in Cheongju will be a key base for SK hynix, which is preparing for the future, such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said SK hynix’s CEO Park Sung-wook in a company statement released Thursday.

SK hynix said it plans to mass produce 3D NAND flash -- the most advanced type of flash memory -- at the Cheongju plant, in response to growing demand for high-performance smartphones in the global market.

SK hynix began mass producing the third generation of 3D NAND flash last month and plans to mass produce the fourth generation in the second half of next year.

The chipmaker also plans to invest in its existing DRAM plant in Wuxi, China. It will invest 950 billion won by April 2019 to expand the clean rooms of the plant. The Wuxi plant has been producing around half of SK hynix’s DRAM chips over the last 10 years.

According to the market research firm IHS Technology, the global NAND flash market is expected to rise 44 percent on average annually to reach 500 million gigabytes in 2020 from 82 million gigabytes last year.

SK hynix is fifth in the NAND flash market with a 10.4 percent share, following dominant players Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Western Digital and Micron, according to research firm DRAM Exchange.

Following the reports on the investment, SK hynix’s shares traded at 45,650 won, a 1.44 percent rise from the previous day.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)