What a difference a price upturn makes. Samsung, the world’s biggest DRAM producer, is pumping up its 1999 capital spending by 20 per cent, taking the pot up to $1.2 billion. Samsung said the investment would enable it to increase DRAM sales by 10 per cent over the year. The new money will boost Korean production of 128MB and higher DRAMs to more than 10 million units per month by the end of 1999, according to Taiwanese computer magazine Eurotrade. Samsung will hold 64MB DRAM output steady at 15 million chips per month. Last year, Samsung conducted a series of production "holidays" between April and October, in response to structural overcapacity and depressed prices in the DRAM market. The company began increasing output in November, to take advantage of a rebound in the PC market worldwide. ®