Samsung halts phone factory due to coronavirus infection

February 25, 2020 | 11:44

(0) user say

A Samsung mobile factory in South Korea has halted operations due to a coronavirus infection, while its Vietnamese facility is said to work at full capacity.

samsung halts phone factory due to coronavirus infection

Samsung has halted a phone factory after a coronavirus infection. Source: Business Insider

Samsung has confirmed one case of coronavirus infection at its mobile device factory in the southeastern city of Gumi, South Korea on February 22. The entire facility has been shut down, colleagues placed in self-quarantine, and the worker’s floor shut down until Tuesday.

"The company has placed colleagues who came in contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection," Samsung said in a news release.

Samsung's factory in Gumi accounts for a small portion of its total smartphone production. The facility makes high-end phones, mostly for the domestic market, while the brunt of Samsung's smartphone production takes place in Vietnam and India.

Meanwhile, at the launching ceremony of its latest smartphone (Galaxy S20) in Ho Chi Minh City last week, Samsung said that its Galaxy factories in Vietnam were operating at “full capacity”. The new devices are assembled at factories located in Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh, both near Hanoi, that together ship half of all Galaxy phones worldwide.

"Samsung Vietnam's operations are in perfect condition," Nguyen Tri Thong, corporate marketing director at local smartphone unit Samsung Vina Electronics, told Nikkei Asian Review on the sidelines of the event. "We are now running at full capacity.”

While Samsung said its operations in Vietnam have returned to normal, there are concerns over logistics at the Chinese border as the Korean company's factories source some parts from China. Earlier this month, hundreds of containers of imported products, including parts and materials for electronics, were held up at Huu Nghi in Lang Son province, one of the three busiest checkpoints on the border.

What the stars mean:

★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional