Vietnam restricts entry of Koreans, Samsung Display Vietnam factory affected

Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, many countries and regions have adopted immigration control measures against South Korea, which is becoming increasingly difficult for multinational companies such as Samsung.

According to Korean media BusinessKorea, due to the spread of the new crown virus pneumonia in South Korea, the Vietnamese government has restricted the entry of Koreans. This measure is affecting Samsung Display's transformation of its flexible OLED module production line. The retrofit requires more than 700 engineers, so Samsung Display is asking the Vietnamese government to waive its engineer's mandatory isolation measures.

There is growing concern that this could affect the production of Samsung's new smartphones and Samsung display products. As of February 29, Vietnam will no longer provide Korean citizens with new work visas and visa-free entry.

According to data from market research companies, the global flexible OLED market is expected to grow from $ 18.29 billion in 2019 to $ 32.7 billion in 2023. Samsung Display's market share in China is expected to decrease from 87% in 2016 to 31 %.

At the same time, Samsung Electronics is said to be exempt from the restrictions at its smartphone manufacturing plant in Vietnam. Samsung Electronics explained that “these factories were mainly operated by local personnel for many years”, “there is no need for large-scale business trips for the time being, and these factories are still operating normally.”

It is understood that in the past ten years, Samsung has closed many Chinese factories and transferred production lines to countries such as Vietnam. For the entire year of 2018 alone, Samsung Vietnam Branch generated US $ 65.7 billion in revenue, which is equivalent to 28% of Vietnam ’s GDP, and it has created more than 100,000 jobs in Vietnam.