Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will no longer make TV sets at its only China factory - the latest in a chain of developments that saw the South Korea group relocate operations from the world's second-largest economy.
A company representative said Monday Samsung would stop production by the end of November. The Tianjin TV assembly line is Samsung Electronics' sole factory base in mainland China.
Samsung said its decision to pull the plug on Tianjin was part of the group's continuing "efforts to boost efficiency" in its supply chain. Samsung has been shutting factories in China over the past few years in the face of growing competition.
In 2018, Samsung stopped operations at its smartphone factory in Tianjin. The following year, it ceased work at its Huizhou factory. In July the company said its desktop computer facility in Suzhou would cease operations. Samsung's assembly lines still in business in China include a home-appliance factory in Suzhou and a semiconductor plant in Xian.
Samsung has around 300 employees at its Tianjin plant, according to a Yonhap News Agency report. The South Korea company didn't immediately release the number of staff affected - except to say some of them would likely stay.
Samsung Electronics' display division recently announced it was disposing of its majority share in the Suzhou liquid-crystal display manufacturing line to TCL Technology Group Corp.'s Star Optoelectronics Technology unit.
The company's display unit said in March it would stop manufacturing all liquid-crystal display monitors in China and South Korea before the end of 2020. The company said it was closing its last personal computer plant in China five months later.
Many companies have shifted production away from China as a result of the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
