Samsung Electronics is considering the relocation of its manufacturing facilities for home appliances from Mexico to the United States, a senior Samsung official confirmed Thursday.
At a media event to introduce the company’s latest premium model washing machine, dubbed “Flex Wash,” Suh Byung-sam, executive vice president of the digital appliances business of the consumer electronics division at Samsung, admitted that the company is seriously reviewing such a plan at the moment.
“The company is observing recent global trends in order to enhance competitiveness abroad,” Suh said. “It is considering a plan to open a plant in the US as part of mid- and long-term strategies.”
The executive’s comment was made for the first time by a Samsung official in response to a report by the Wall Street Journal on the same day, which said the South Korean company is expected to invest $300 million for a new US plant.
Suh Byung-sam, executive vice president for consumer electronics at Samsung Electronics, introduces Flex Wash at the Samsung Seocho Complex in southern Seoul on Thursday. (Samsung Electronics)
According to industry sources, Samsung is looking at five US states for its first home appliance plant in the country, including South Carolina and Alabama. South Carolina is the most likely candidate, some news reports indicated.
Samsung’s move would follow its archrival LG Electronics, which announced last month plans to build a $250 million factory with an annual capacity of 1 million washing machines in Tennessee.
The Korean manufacturers’ decisions come amid criticism from US President Donald Trump about companies that produce products outside the country for American consumers.
Some speculate that Samsung’s US factory would double the size of LG’s, up to 2 million units -- either washing machines or refrigerators.
With the newest Flex Wash, Samsung aims to take over the No. 1 position in the premium washing machine market over $900 from LG.
Samsung promotes the new product as a washing machine that “hasn’t existed on Earth,” including three doors.
The Flex Wash has a 3.5-kilogram top loader, called “Compact Wash,” and a 23-kilogram front-loader, called “Add Wash.” The Add Wash has an additional smaller door on top of the main door, for three doors in total, through which users can add more laundry during washing. Users can operate both the Compact and Add Wash at the same time with different settings.
It is also the first artificial intelligence-based washing machine, according to the company, as it is connected to a cloud storing the five most frequently used cycles of laundry habits and 79 pieces of related data.
“Adding to the current remote controlling feature from smartphones, the new intelligence-based feature enables washers to adjust laundry conditions such as water temperature by learning from the data,” the company said.
The latest laundry system comes in black and white in five different volumes. They are priced from 2.29 million won ($1,980) to 2.69 million won.
The company is also preparing to launch Flex Dry, a premium dryer system it introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)
