Korean tech giant Samsung, on Wednesday, 2 October, confirmed that it has ended mobile production in China, citing challenge faced from domestic rivals in the world's biggest market, a Reuters report said.
The shutdown of the company's last factory comes after it cut the production at the plant in the city of Huizhou in June and suspended another factory last year, giving the same reason, the report said.
Apart from Samsung, Sony also announced a complete shutdown of manufacturing smartphones in China, saying it will make phones in Thailand instead.
Given the fall in Samsung's presence in Chinese market, the shutdown is not as much of a surprise. The company held only 1 percent of the market in the first quarter, as compared to the 15 percent share in the same quarter in 2013.
With the arrival of companies like Xiaomi, Vivo, Huawei, etc. Samsung’s hold on the market only saw a downfall for the oast few years.
“The production equipment will be re-allocated to other global manufacturing sites, depending on our global production strategy based on market needs," Reuters quoted the company as saying.
On the other hand, Samsung has already expanded smartphone production in lower-cost countries, such as India and Vietnam in the recent years.
(With inputs from Reuters)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)