The Vietnamese government said the impact was particularly evident in the northern province of Thai Nguyen. The province is one of Samsung’s two mobile manufacturing bases in Vietnam, where half of the company’s smartcell phoneAll are made in Vietnam.
Samsung shipped about 270 million smartphones last year. The company’s website shows that the Taiyuan park has an annual production capacity of about 100 million units.
“We will only work three days a week, and some production lines will be adjusted from six days a week to four days a week, and of course no overtime is required,” said Pham Thi Thuong, a 28-year-old worker at Samsung’s Taiyuan factory.
In response, Samsung said it had not discussed lowering its annual production target in Vietnam. The company is relatively optimistic about smartphone demand in the second half of the year, saying on an earnings call last week that supply disruptions have largely been resolved and that demand is either flat or will see single-digit growth.
Samsung Electronics aims to sell more foldable phones in the second half of the year than its past flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note. The company is expected to release its latest folding screen product on August 10.
But several workers at Samsung’s Vietnam factory said business was not booming. Thuong and her friends who have worked at Samsung for about five years say they have never seen production cuts as severe as this.
“Of course there is a low season every year, usually around June-July, but the low season means no overtime, rather than cutting the working day like it is now,” Thuong said. Managers told workers that inventories were high and new orders were not, she said. many.
Research firm Gartner expects global smartphone shipments to fall 6 percent this year as consumers cut back on spending.
Samsung is Vietnam’s largest foreign investor and exporter, with 6 factories across the country, from the northern industrial hubs of Taiyuan and Bac Ninh, which mainly produce mobile phones and components, to productionrefrigeratorandwashing machinefactory in Ho Chi Minh City.
The South Korean company poured $18 billion into Vietnam, fueling the country’s economic growth. Samsung accounts for one-fifth of Vietnam’s total exports.
