Coronavirus outbreak has affected operations and sales of several tech companies around the world, including Samsung. The virus, which began spreading from China, has now affected people in more than 50 countries.

Amid all this, Samsung Electronics, the leading smartphone maker in the world, is trying hard to diversify its production to minimise the fallout. As per the report, the company is now shutting down its production facility in South Korea.

As per the report, after reporting six confirmed COVID-19 infections at its smartphone plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, Samsung has decided to temporarily scale back operations on the Gumi line and shift the same to Vietnam.

The South Korean giant has been producing its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S20 lineup as well as the foldable Galaxy Z Flip, in Gumi, for domestic consumers. Samsung said the decision to shift to Vietnam was made to ensure “stable production” of its high-end smartphones.

With more than 6,500 reported cases of coronavirus infections so far, South Korean is the worst-hit country outside of China. Samsung’s Gumi plant, which has about 10,000 workers, has been frequently shut down in the past weeks because many workers were quarantined amid increasing infections.

Because of the coronavirus, the world’s smartphone market is forecast to dip. Counterpoint Research reports that the global handset market is estimated to shrink 5 percent in the first quarter alone while Strategy Analytics says that the volume of phone shipments would decline 10 percent from its initial forecast, largely due to the COVID-19 scare.

(Via)

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