Samsung to earn $2b from cell-phone export

Samsung Electronics Vietnam is expected to gain up to $2 billion from exporting cell-phones this year, having beaten this year’s target of $1.7 billion by end-September, said a top executive of another Samsung subsidiary.

Je Hyoung Park, chief executive officer of Samsung Vina, told a press briefing in HCM City yesterday that the cell-phone factory in the northern province of Bac Ninh earned big export revenue owing to its high-priced smart phones shipped to 52 markets worldwide.

The factory currently turns out six million units a month, and will soon raise output to ten million products later this year compared to its monthly designed output of 12 million sets, Park told the press briefing convened to announce Samsung Vina’s plan to boost sales of laptops in the country.

“Export earnings from this (cell-phone) factory are predicted to reach $16 billion by 2015, he said.

Operations of the cell-phone factory in Yen Phong Industrial Park have attracted 32 other manufacturers who have been licensed there to supply accessories and parts to Samsung Electronics.

According to Park, the Korean investor is considering an expansion plan to double the scale of the factory from the current 50 hectares to 100 hectares, turning it into a complex manufacturing a wide array of ICT products, including laptops, printers, cameras and vacuum cleaners.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics received a license for its $670 million mobile phone factory in 2008, and started production in April 2009. Up to 90 percent of its output is for export.

At the press briefing yesterday, Park also announced the launch of a new laptop named Q Series, and introduced Digiworld as a new distributor. This is the third distributor for Samsung laptops on the local market, behind FPT Distribution and AVNet-Sunshine.

Data from the technology research firm Gartner shows that Samsung held a market share of only 2.4 percent for laptops in the second quarter this year, but the company has seen an upsurge in laptop sales over the past months.

Samsung Vina said laptop sales in the third quarter leapt 60 percent from the previous quarter, and expected sales in the fourth quarter to jump by up to 90 percent owing to the market recovery. – Saigon times

Tags: Samsung cell-phone export