Seoul, Mar 31 (IANS): Samsung Electronics Co.'s chip production at its US plant is approaching normal levels, an official from the company said, following a month-long shutdown caused by a power outage in the region.

"Our plant in Austin, Texas, has entered the normal stage of production from last week," a Samsung official said. "We are currently ramping up operations to reach the level we had before the shutdown."

Industry insiders now expect that Samsung's Austin plant may resume production at normal rates within one or two weeks.

The US chip facility was forced to halt its operations in mid-February after a severe winter storm caused a power outage in the region, reports Yonhap news agency.

The plant recovered power and water supply from late February, but due to inspections of its equipment and yield tests, Samsung could not resume normal operations immediately.

It was the first time in Samsung's history that a chip plant halted production for a month.

Industry sources estimated that the month-long production halt may have cost Samsung over 300 billion won (US$264 million).

Samsung's Austin plant, also known as Line S2, manufactures products like radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC), display driver integrated circuits, solid-state drive controllers, image sensors and other microprocessors using nodes from 14 nanometers to 65 nanometers.