Samsung denies shifting smartphone production from Vietnam to India
Samsung has refuted rumors that it plans to shift part of smartphone production from Vietnam to India, saying that the former is still the group’s main manufacturing base.
Samsung denies shifting smartphone production from Vietnam to India Illustrative photo: Hanoitimes
Samsung Vietnam said in a statement that its smartphone producing factories in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen are operating as usual, according to VNExpress.
Vietnam will always be Samsung’s important production base in the world, it stated on Tuesday, adding that reports on the shift to India are “groundless.”
The denial was made after the Economic Times, an Indian news website, reported that Samsung is considering shifting a major part of its smartphone production to India from Vietnam and other countries, as the South Korean tech giant hopes to produce devices worth US$40 billion in India.
The move would help Samsung diversify its production lines and taking advantage of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme from the India government, Economic Times added.
As such, Samsung is reportedly to have submitted plans of making smartphones worth over US$40 billion to the Indian government in the next five years. Out of this, phones with factory price of over US$200 could account for over US$25 billion, with the majority subject to export.
“Samsung is likely to diversify its production lines for making smartphones to India under the PLI (Production Linked Incentive) scheme and this will have an impact in its existing capabilities across various countries like Vietnam,” Economic Times cited a source “familiar with the matter” as saying.
In a meeting with Samsung Vietnam’s CEO Choi Joo Ho on August 11, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed hope that the country would continue to remain Samsung’s global strategic production hub, especially as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) have become effective.
Samsung has been Vietnam’s biggest foreign investor with its total investment in the country amounting to US$17.3 billion to date, a 26-fold increase from that of 2008, when its first cell phone plant, Samsung Electronics Vietnam, worth US$670 million opened in Bac Ninh Province.
Up to now, Samsung Vietnam is running six plants and one research and development center, with the two smartphone facilities in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen being Samsung’s largest smartphone plants in the global market, reported Saigontimes.
Apart from this, Samsung Electronics HCMC Complex is the biggest electronics plant in Southeast Asia.
Source:vnexplorer.net
