A Galaxy Note7 smartphone (Photo: CNET) Hanoi (VNA) – The production suspension and recall of Galaxy Note7, a smartphone previously hoped to be a Samsung flagship product this year, will not have much impact on Samsung Vietnam’s export revenue in 2016, the firm said.
The company is confident that its exports this year will still increase compared to 32.7 billion USD in export turnover in 2015.
It also assured that there will not be any lay-offs, adding that there are about 110,000 workers at Samsung’s factories in Vietnam at present.
According to the company, Galaxy Note7 was manufactured not only in Vietnam, but also in the Republic of Korea and China. Aside from Galaxy Note7, the factories in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen also produce many other phones such as S7, S7 Edge, Galaxy A and Galaxy J, along with tablets.
Samsung Vietnam said it gives top priority to customers' interests and safety. It stopped the Note7 exchange programme on October 12 and has begun to refund the entire 18.99 million VND (844 USD) to each Galaxy Note7 buyer from October 18 to November 18.
It is also offering a 1.5 million VND voucher to each customer to buy new Samsung products. Customers can also borrow another Samsung smartphone for temporary use if they have not bought another phone yet.
Nguyen Mai, Chairman of Vietnam’s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises, said the recall of Galaxy Note7 may cause a loss of 1.75 billion USD to Samsung.
Meanwhile, the firm expects the plants in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen to generate 34.7 billion USD in revenue this year. This means the loss is not too much, at around 0.5 – 1 percent, he noted.
The export value of phones and phone components reached 2.4 billion USD in September, down 17.4 percent month on month, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
That adds up to the nine-month figure of 24.96 billion USD, rising by 8.6 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 19.5 percent of the nation’s total export value of 128.21 billion USD during the period.-VNA
