Samsung affirms $2.5 billion expansion in Bac Ninh
Samsung affirms $2.5 billion expansion in Bac Ninh
In the midst of public suspicion about the fate of Samsung’s plans in Vietnam, today Samsung is going to receive the investment certificate for its $2.5 billion Samsung Display project in the northern province of Bac Ninh.
The project is going to be located in Yen Phong Industrial Park. It has been approved in principle by the government earlier, and the government is going to give to the project all the incentives that are available to a large-scale project.
With this project, Samsung Display’s total investment in Vietnam is going to be $6.5 billion.
There is no confirmation from Samsung but experts said that Samsung Display’s expansion of investment in Vietnam may be related to Apple’s plan to switch to using AMOLED screen.
Samsung is the only company in the world with exclusive technologies and the capacity for mass production of AMOLED screens to meet the demand of Apple. At the moment Samsung is holding a 95 per cent share of the global market for AMOLED, producing an average 200 million products a year.
With this investment, Samsung reaffirms its position as the biggest foreign investor into Vietnam at the moment. The expansion also somewhat clears the doubt of the public that Samsung may postpone its investment plans in Vietnam, which boiled after Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the son of Samsung group chairman Lee Kun-hee was arrested on February 17 as part of a probe into corruption and influence-peddling that caused President Park Geun-hye to be impeached.
At the moment Samsung has registered $17.3 billion of investment in Vietnam. Besides $6.5 billion by Samsung Display is $9.5 billion investment by Samsung Electronics, including $5 billion in Thai Nguyen, $2.5 billion in Bac Ninh and $2 billion in Ho Chi Minh City, and the $1.2 billion Samsung Electro-Mechanics project in Thai Nguyen.
Samsung Display first invested in Vietnam in 2014 with $1 billion. Only a year later the company decided to raise the capital to $4 billion and at the moment $6.5 billion. The project in Bac Ninh is going to produce the newest generation of displays to supply to Samsung’s mobile device manufacturing facilities in Vietnam as well as to export.
