LG Electronics Inc said it would stop producing smartphones in South Korea and move manufacturing to Vietnam, joining global rivals in reorganising production as they battle a slump in global demand.
The restructuring of its money-losing business comes as LG, once one of the world’s top three mobile phone makers, has seen its global market share spiralling to less than three per cent in the decade that smartphones came to dominate the mobile market.
LG, whose smartphone business has been losing money for several years, said in a statement that shifting production will boost annual capacity of its smartphone plant in Vietnam by 83 per cent to 11 million handsets from the second half of 2019.
It said Vietnam provides an “abundant labour force”, and that 750 workers at its South Korean handset factory would be relocated to its home appliance plant.