Samsung Workers in Vietnam Bear Brunt of Slowdown in Global Demand for Electronics

Samsung has scaled back production at its massive smartphone plant in Vietnam, employees say, as retailers and warehouses grapple with rising inventory amid a global fall in consumer spending. From a report: America's largest warehouse market is full and major U.S. retailers such as Best Buy and Target warn of slowing sales as shoppers tighten their belts after early COVID-era spending binges. The effect is acutely felt in Vietnam's northern province of Thai Nguyen, one of Samsung's two mobile manufacturing bases in the country where the world's largest smartphone vendor churns out half of its phone output, according to the Vietnam government.

Samsung, which shipped around 270 million smartphones in 2021, says the campus has the capacity to make around 100 million devices a year, according to its website. 'We are going to work just three days per week, some lines are adjusting to a four-day workweek instead of six before, and of course no overtime is needed,' Pham Thi Thuong, a 28-year-old worker at the plant told Reuters. 'Business activities were even more robust during this time last year when the COVID-19 outbreak was at its peak. It's so tepid now.'

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