South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. may spend up to 25 trillion won ($24.39 billion) this year on facility investment, an 8.6 percent increase from 2013, driven by its focus on the organic light-emitting diode panel, industry watchers said Wednesday.

The tech firm, the world’s No. 1 smartphone maker and the jewel of top cap conglomerate Samsung Group, had said last month its facility investment this year would be about the same as last year.

But Samsung Display Co., whose investments are consolidated with Samsung Electronics, decided in April to expand its investment in OLED production lines.

Samsung’s facility investment for the first quarter of 2014 rose 39.2 percent on-year to 5.4 trillion won, according to industry estimates, with 3.3 trillion won allocated to the chip sector.

Samsung Display plans to produce OLED panels at its new plant under construction in Asan, about 95 kilometers south of Seoul, which will be used in Samsung’s wearable devices and tablet PCs.

“With the OLED production line scheduled to commence its operation in the first half of next year, the investment will be made starting in the second half of 2014,” an official from Samsung Display said.

While the plant is expected to cost Samsung around 3 trillion to 5 trillion won, local analysts estimate around 2 trillion won will be injected for the first phase.

Samsung Electronics is also set to increase investments in its facility in Xian, an industrial city in northwestern China, which began production earlier in May to make faster and higher-capacity version of flash memory chips. (Yonhap)