Samsung Seeks to Narrow Gap With Nokia

Samsung says that it is accelerating its efforts to catch up with Nokia by expanding production facilities in its Chinese and Vietnamese plants in order to benefit from lower production costs compared to its South Korean factories. Samsung currently has three plants in China - at Huizhou, Shenzen and Tianjin.

"With the goal of producing 25 million more handsets in 2008, we will begin operating in Huizhou, China, centering on GSM and CDMA phones as construction for the line was completed late last month," a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Times.

"We will also expand production facilities for handsets in another plant in Shenzhen to chase Nokia with low-end phones," the official said, adding that the production capacity of its Tianjin plant is expected to reach 70 million units in a few years.

The company expects to ramp Chinese production up to 90 million units per annum and its new Vietnamese facilities should be capable of producing 100 million handsets per year when completed shortly.

Posted to the site on 7th November 2007