Locals link to Samsung’s chain

Samsung has raised the production processes at local firms to meet global standards
Photo: Le Toan

Nguyen Van Hung, director of Ho Chi Minh City-based An Phu Viet Trading & Production Plastics Limited, was confident about the prospect of becoming a supplier for Samsung.

“We aim to become a first-tier supplier to Samsung in the near future through the delivery of assorted battery chargers for Samsung smartphones,” Hung said.

Three months ago, An Phu Viet and other local firms joined a seminar on the development of Vietnam’s supporting industries which Samsung organised to seek local suppliers.

An Phu Viet and three other local firms - Thang Long Packaging Production Export-Import, Viet Hung Packaging, and Chien Thang Industrial were selected by Samsung as beneficiaries of this group’s supporting systems.

Samsung sent four experts from South Korea to Vietnam to support the firms in their production and supply upgrading process. Three months later, Samsung Vietnam industrial complex’s chief executive officer Han Myong-sup visited the firms to check the final results.

Prior to his visit, Myong-sup said that “this is the first time that Samsung has sent experts to a foreign market to support the perfection of businesses’ production process. This shows how important the Vietnamese market is to Samsung.”

Following the completed support plan for these businesses, Samsung will reach out to more local firms in the near future.

“Despite some initial teething problems, I hope Vietnamese firms will sustain their effort and commitment to join the global production chain together with Samsung,” Myong-sup stressed.

In fact, of the four companies receiving Samsung’s support, Viet Hung and Thang Long are now already acting as first-tier suppliers for Samsung.

After becoming Samsung’s supplier, Thang Long has reported exceptional growth with a nearly four-fold increase in the firm’s revenue; from $3.41 million in 2009, to $12 million last year, and an expected figure of $13 million for this year.

Meanwhile, Viet Hung, which has been supplying cardboard boxes, plastics, and paper packaging to Samsung since April 2009, saw its revenue increase exponentially from $13 million in 2010, to $42 million last year, and a projected level of $65 million this year. In addition to expanding its existing

workshops in the northern province of Hung Yen, this April, Viet Hung built another packaging production plant in Ho Chi Minh City. The company’s chairman Hoang Gia Hung was quoted as saying that “this is a step forward to take advantage of the opportunity brought about by Samsung’s third manufacturing complex in Ho Chi Minh City.”

Meanwhile, following its promotion as a supplier to Samsung, An Phu Viet hopes to swell the firm’s revenue several-fold from its current level of $2 million.