TIẾNG VIỆT Samsung to move part of Tianjin TV production to Vietnam
Samsung has been shifting production away from China amid rising personnel costs and lackluster sales. © Reuters
The closure of its Chinese TV factory in Tianjin will be conducted at the end of November. This is part of a greater trend of businesses shifting supply chains away from China due to trade war and Covid-19 pandemic.
Samsung, the world's top seller of flat-screen TVs, has been losing market share in China due to the rising quality of local competition as well as boycotts triggered by Seoul's decision in 2016 to deploy a U.S.-developed missile shield over Beijing's objections, Nikkei said.
Rising labor costs in China has been a concern when manufacturers are seeking to cut cost amid trade war and pandemic.
Samsung’s Tianjin plant, which was opened in 1993, employs about 300 people after several rounds of downsizing. It plans to reassign these workers to other facilities or help them find new jobs as part of the closure.
The production from the factory will shift to Vietnam, Mexico, Hungary, Egypt and elsewhere. The move makes Samsung's global production more efficient, the company said.
The South Korea’s conglomerate also shut its smartphone plant in Tianjin and the southern Chinese city of Huizhou before the end of 2019, and the company said in June that it would cease production at a computer factory in Suzhou.
Samsung still operates an appliance factory in Suzhou and two chip factories in Xi'an.
- This story appeared earlier on Nikkei Asian Review.
