Market ease sees Samsung cut smartphone production capacity in Vietnam

Samsung Electronics has reportedly adjusted the number of working days for Vietnamese smartphone production staff from five a week to three.

The tech giant has announced it had recently delivered to major suppliers the details of the adjustment. The global corporation made flexible adjustments in line with market conditions, and the change for Vietnam includes either three days or four depending on production lines, Etnews, a Korean IT news outlet, reported last Thursday.

Vietnam is currently Samsung's largest production base, accounting for more than 60% of its global smartphone supply.

It is predicted that production utilization rates would be lowered not only in Vietnam but also in India, which is the second largest production base for Samsung smartphones, as well as Brazil, according to Etnews. India produces about 20-30% of Samsung's total smartphones and Brazil, 10-15%.

The reduction in working days follows the recent adjustment in smartphone shipment targets set earlier this year, the news outlet said. At the beginning of the year, Samsung Electronics raised its target for total smartphone shipments to 334 million units due to the recovery from Covid-19 and easing of supply and demand shortages among application processors, it explained.

"The number of working days for production has always been flexibly adjusted based on market conditions," Etnews quoted a Samsung Electronics official as saying.

Samsung is operating two smartphone production sites in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces in northern Vietnam. It had invested more than $18 billion in the Southeast Asian country as of the end of 2021.