Samsung canceled plans to produce more high-end smartphones in Vietnam

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, South Korea was one of the first countries after China to be seriously affected with a sharp increase in the number of infections. At that time, Samsung factory in South Korea had to close many times because of repeatedly detecting positive cases for new strain of corona virus. Some sources believe that Samsung is considering moving some high-end smartphone production lines to Vietnam to “fend off” the instability situation at the Gumi factory, South Korea. However, SamMobile said that Samsung has now canceled this plan due to good disease control in Korea.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is made in Korea. Samsung once considered moving this smartphone production line to Vietnam because of a pandemic. (Image: SlashGear)

In case you didn’t know, Samsung’s Gumi, South Korea factory is home to some high-end phones like Samsung Galaxy Fold or Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. At the present time, Vietnam is also one of the extremely important “production bases” for smartphone production of the Korean technology giant. The corona virus was hit hard in South Korea right after the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip was launched. This is the second flexible smartphone line Samsung has introduced to the market.

Samsung Bac Ninh factory. (Image: Bloomberg)

The number of smartphones sold globally is declining at an unprecedented speed in the first quarter of this year due to the far-reaching effects of COVID-19. Specifically, in the first three months of this year, smartphone sales reached 275 million units, according to two market research units Strategy Analytics and IDC, down 17% and 11% respectively over the same period last year. Both companies say these poor numbers are the result of disrupted supply chains and a decline in market demand due to the new strain of corona virus.