Samsung Electronics is cutting production and laying off workers at its only remaining smartphone plant in China amid slowing sales as it continues to shift production to lower-cost Asia locations.
The move at Samsung’s plant in Huizhou city, Guangdong province, comes as the South Korean company struggles to compete against Chinese rivals offering cheaper but competitive smartphones. Samsung has only about 1 per cent market share in China, down from about 20 per cent in 2013, according to Strategy Analytics.
To counter rising labour costs in China, Samsung has been shifting smartphone production from China to Vietnam and India in the past decade. Analysts expect the Sino-US trade war to accelerate that shift.