Samsung supplier Synopex fined $9,500 for environmental violations

The northern province of Bac Ninh has fined wholly Korean-invested Synopex VND230 million ($9,500) for environmental violations.

On the provincial People's Committee's website, local authorities said some indices of the firm’s wastewater quality were 1.1-1.5 times permitted levels for output of 1,200-1,400 cubic meters per day.

The firm was asked to fix the issues within 30 days and report the actions to Bac Ninh authorities for monitoring.

Synopex established its first Vietnam factory at the Quang Minh Industrial Park in Hanoi in July 2014. Its Bac Ninh factory was inaugurated in 2018 with an investment of $30 million.

Synopex is a first-tier vendor of Samsung in Vietnam, supplying printed circuit boards (PCB), flexible PCB (FPCB), and glass components for camera equipment, phones and tablets. Synopex is also a partner of other large corporations in Vietnam, including LG, Vingroup (its automobile arm VinFast), Foxconn and BKAV.

Bac Ninh attracted foreign direct investments of $1.31 billion in 308 projects in the year to October 20, down 25.8% year-on-year in terms of value, according to provincial data.

The province's index of industrial production (IIP) fell 3.99% in October and 12.96% in January-October, the worst performance in the last five years.