Samsung, reportedly, is suspending production of its smartphones at its facility in Gumi, South Korea, the company said on Friday. The company is temporarily planning to move its production to Vietnam, where it does the bulk of the production of its smartphones. South Korea has so far recorded the maximum cases of coronavirus after China.
This is the second time that the company will be temporarily halting production at its South Korea facility in just over a week after another of its employees tested positive for the deadly coronavirus. Samsung had earlier closed its factory for two days when one of its employees tested positive for virus.
Samsung feels the heat
The world's largest smartphone maker, reportedly, said on Friday that it will halt the production at its Gumi factory and shift the production to Vietnam after another of its employees tested positive for the virus, according to a company spokesperson, reported Reuters. So far six employees in the company's Gumi factory have been affected by coronavirus.
The move to shift output of "some premium smartphones" to Vietnam "intends to supply products to consumers in more effective, stable and timely manner," Samsung said in a statement. Samsung produces its high-end S20 and Z Flip foldable phones at its Gumi factory.
Vietnam saves Samsung
The news comes on a day when the company also unveiled its S20 flagship smartphones globally. The company had long scheduled the launch of its much-hyped flagship S20 amid speculation of the phones demand suffering owing to the growing scare of coronavirus. The company had earlier closed its Gumi factory end last week after it reported the first case of one of its employees testing positive for coronavirus.
Samsung had immediately quarantined that employee and closed down the factory for sanitization. Given that now as many as six employees at it Gumi facility has tested positive for the virus, Samsung doesn't want to compromise with its production further and has decidedly to shift production of two of its high-end smartphone models to Vietnam.
The company does majority of its production in Vietnam and India. Its Vietnam facility produces as much 50% of its annual production. Samsung is the single largest foreign company operating in Vietnam. However, the Vietnam government cancelled visa-free entry of South Koreans to the country from February 29 following the outbreak of coronavirus.
