VietNamNet Bridge – Samsung’s cell-phone production factory in Thai Nguyen Province has started operation after nearly one year of construction, said a source from Samsung Vina Electronics Co. Ltd.

A worker follows production in the cell-phone plant of Samsung in Bac Ninh Province – Photo: Courtesy of Samsung

The investor expects to inaugurate the factory in the middle of this year. The project has a total investment capital of US$2 billion.

In the first stage, Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) production complex has around 5,000 workers with capacity of two million products each month. The output is expected to increase to around 8-9 million products each month in the fourth quarter with around 15,000 employees.

Earlier, SEVT is estimated to hire 40,000-50,000 workers as its capacity will be equal to Samsung’s factory in Bac Ninh Province, which has employed around 43,000 staff.

With the new factory, Samsung expects to strongly raise cell-phone export revenue. Its factory in Bac Ninh Province last year fetched export value of around US$23.9 billion, or over 18% of the nation’s total export revenue.

Last year, Samsung Bac Ninh brought about added value of around US$7.6 billion, the source said.

SEVT has also attracted suppliers of Samsung in Korea and some neighboring countries.

Samsung used to expect that there would be around 200 suppliers for its two major projects in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces. At present, there have been 52 suppliers for Samsung factory in Bac Ninh alone.

However, the source said that only four 100% Vietnamese-owned enterprises have joined Samsung’s supply chain. They only provide simple products such as packaging and printing service.

Most other suppliers are from South Korea and neighboring countries or joint ventures between Vietnamese firms and foreign partners.

According to the General Statistics Office, cell-phone and component exports took the lead among industrial products in 2013.

Vietnam’s cell-phone and component export value is expected to keep rising this year as Samsung’s Thai Nguyen factory has started operation while Nokia’s factory in Bac Ninh Province has started full-capacity running.

In 2009, Samsung inaugurated the cell-phone factory Samsung Electronics Vietnam in Bac Ninh Province with the total capital of US$670 million. The capital then has been revised up to US$2.5 billion.

In March, 2013, SEVT began work on a hi-tech complex worth US$2 billion in Thai Nguyen Province. The complex is developed on an area of 100 hectares.

Aside from production of cell-phones and tablets, Samsung has strongly invested in projects with high technology and huge capital in Vietnam. Samsung Electro-Mechanics under the group has won the investment license for a US$1.2-billion chip production plant in the SEVT complex.

Samsung also has plans to invest in energy, petrochemical and airport sectors in Vietnam in the coming time through a memorandum of understanding on cooperation signed between the Ministry of Investment and Planning and Samsung C&T last September.

Source: SGT