Samsung Chip Plant in Korea Suffers Fire Amid Coronavirus Outbreak; Tech Giant Moves Phone Production in Vietnam

Samsung
People wears masks in front a Samsung Store at a main shopping area as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus in downtown Shanghai, China February 21, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song

A fire broke out in Samsung's chip manufacturing plant in South Korea, according to officials. The blaze started at 11:18 pm (local time) on Sunday at the tech large's plant in Hwaseong, south of the capital Seoul, and was put out in two and a half hours.

According to a Samsung official, the fireplace broke out at a wastewater treatment deodorizer facility at the plant however didn't harm its production lines. No casualties had been pronounced so far.

The company stated it would completely cooperate with fire authorities to investigate the exact cause of the accident. Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday fire at its semiconductor plant in South Korea would not affect its chip manufacturing.


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The coincidence comes amid heightened problems in the South Korean tech giant because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Last week, the company tightened its coronavirus screening procedure for its chip factory in South Korea. Samsung has required its employees to report weekly, on line self-examination questions regarding the outbreak.


Samsung shifts production to Vietnam amid COVID-19 outbreak


Amid the quick unfold of COVID-19 in Korea, Samsung decided to move the smartphone production to its Vietnam-based factories. The decision for this was in reaction to the latest closure of its factory in Gumi, South Korea, where several of its manufacturing facility employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

The business enterprise states that the production of "some high-end smartphones" is assigned to its Vietnam factories that allow the company to meet client demands timely and efficiently.

The outlet in Korea sees the production of high-end devices such as the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung said the decision to shift to Vietnam was made to ensure "stable production" of its high-end smartphones. About 200,000 gadgets of premium cellphone production per month will transfer to Vietnam. A regular schedule ought to resume once the outbreak is stabilized.

Samsung Group said it temporarily allocates a small portion of its production from the Gumi complex in Korea to Vietnam to serve its consumers best, and it will return Gumi's output to normal levels when appropriate."

Its Gumi manufacturing unit, which makes up for a small portion of the company's handset output, was briefly closed down in mid-February. A general of six manufacturing facility personnel is confirmed to be infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus after the preliminary report. The manufacturing unit is stated to have resumed production on Saturday, Mar. 7, according to a Samsung spokeswoman.

Samsung's Gumi plant, which has approximately 10,000 workers, has been recently shut down in the past weeks to quarantine many workers amid increasing infections.

South Korean technology businesses are going through the growing prospect of detrimental disruption to their delivery chain as health authorities fight to contain the outbreak. Some tech companies have reported problems sourcing from China and Vietnam in the latest weeks and disruptions to local production, amid increasing infections and worker quarantines in the region.

ALSO READ: South Korea Raises Coronavirus Alert to 'Highest Level': Is Samsung in Peril?

As of Monday, Mar. 9, South Korea has 7,382 novel coronavirus cases with 51 dead. The majority of instances continue to come from the metropolis of Daegu and are related to congregations of Shincheonji, a religious agency primarily based there.


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