Intel and Samsung Affected as COVID Closes Electronics Factory in Vietnam • The Register
Saigon Hi-Tech Park, a Vietnamese electronics factory complex, had to close and workers have to live on site after more than 750 employees tested positive for COVID-19.
The park is home to many high-tech companies – including an Intel chip assembly and test facility and a Samsung factory.
Samsung, which makes more than half of its smartphones in Vietnam, has shut down three of its 16 factories after finding 46 cases among its employees and reduced the available workforce from 7,000 to 3,000.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has asked companies to develop a plan to house workers – either in the factories or off-site – and take them directly to their facilities.
Intel has already made housing arrangements and is continuing the scaled-down operations.
Nidec Sankyo, which makes magnetic card readers, has been closed since July 3 after 600 reported COVID-19 cases. The contract manufacturer Jabil has closed the park, as has a company called Pou Chen, which is an important supplier to Nike and Adidas.
It’s unclear whether the closings are causing bottlenecks or delays in product shipping, but they clearly have the potential to disrupt supply chains.
Tech exports are a major contributor to the Vietnamese economy, and Saigon Hi-Tech Park accounts for 30 percent of the exports generated by nearby Ho Chi Minh City.
The city tightened its lockdown last Friday, even banning the delivery of groceries – a decision that sparked panic buying in grocery stores.
Vietnam currently has a low vaccination rate – around four percent of its nearly 100 million population – and is experiencing over 1,000 coronavirus cases every day.
The government has made factory workers’ vaccines a priority, and companies like Intel and Samsung are helping with vaccination. Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday that Intel has vaccinated more than 70 percent of its employees in the country.
A pre-made statement on Samsung Vietnam’s website on Tuesday said the company has donated nearly VND 11 billion (US $ 480,000) to control and prevent COVID in Thai Nguyen province of northeast Vietnam).
The donations come as no surprise after Samsung was asked by the Vietnamese government in May to help fight the virus. ®
