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| Vietnamese soldiers spray disinfectant on the streets of Hanoi, May 12. EPA-Yonhap |
By Kim Bo-eun
Samsung Electronics is set to see further fallout based on a COVID-19 lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, following pandemic-related damage at its smartphone factory in the country earlier this year.
Vietnam has restricted the movement of citizens in Ho Chi Minh City, a measure which is set to last through Sept. 15. The military will be mobilized during the lockdown to deliver food, in a measure to curb the spread of the virus, as Vietnam has seen cases of new infections spiral to over 10,000 in recent days.
Samsung's TV and home appliances production plant in Ho Chi Minh City had already been operating for more than a month under a lockdown applied to all factories in Saigon Hi-Tech Park. Workers at the Samsung plant have been sleeping on-site and in adjacent spaces at schools and other facilities secured by the company.
"This will inevitably leave workers in a tiring situation, given they will not be able to return home for almost another month," an industry official familiar with the matter said, Monday.
The Ho Chi Minh plant, employing 7,000 workers, produces TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and vacuum cleaners for markets in Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S. The plant has been operating at 30 percent to 40 percent of total capacity in recent weeks under the lockdown.
"We are doing all we can to minimize impact (of the lockdown), but given the workforce has been reduced, the plant cannot be run at full capacity," a Samsung Electronics official said.
Samsung's production fallout is projected to affect sales on Black Friday, the U.S.'s biggest shopping holiday coming in November.
A shutdown of the Ho Chi Minh plant is estimated to result in up to 17 billion won in losses in one day.
Production disruptions occurred in May at Samsung's smartphone factory in Bac Ninh Province in the northern region nearby Hanoi, after the factory was placed under a lockdown following a COVID-19 outbreak. This resulted in Samsung losing the global No. 1 smartphone sales ranking to its Chinese competitor Xiaomi in June. Samsung's plants in Bac Ninh and the adjacent province of Thai Nguyen manufacture about half of the vendor's global smartphone production.
Samsung said its smartphone plant's operations have been normalized and it has been unaffected by the lockdown of Hanoi. While factories have run on reduced capacity, there have been no cases of complete shutdowns at any plants, the official said.
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