South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group expects sales of Samsung Electronics Co. and three other units in Vietnam to spike more than 30 percent on-year in 2017 on its strong smartphone business, sources said Wednesday.
Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display Co., Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. and Samsung SDI Co. are targeting to post combined sales of $60 billion in the Southeast Asian country this year, up 33 percent from the previous year.
This undated file photo shows workers at a Samsung Electronics cellphone plant in Vietnam. (Samsung)
The four group subsidiaries are also aiming to register $50 billion in total exports, 25 percent more than a year earlier.
Samsung Vietnam General Director Han Myoung-sup unveiled the goals during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Tuesday, according to the sources.
Vietnam is expected to rely more on the Samsung subsidiaries for its exports in 2017 than last year, when their exports accounted for 22.7 percent of Vietnam's total overseas shipments.
Cellphones take up more than 80 percent of exports by the Vietnamese units of the four Samsung companies. Samsung Electronics operates two cellphone plants in Vietnam, which account for some 50 percent of its mobile phone output.
Samsung Electronics' strong business in Vietnam is said to have been driven by brisk sales of its latest flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus, whose global sales have reached 5 million units in less than a month after their official release.
Samsung's cellphone plants have been running around the clock to meet surging demand.
In 2015, Samsung SDI started partial operations of its Vietnamese plant, and the company has revised its investment in the Southeast Asian country to $6.5 billion from an initial $1 billion.
The combined workforce of the four Samsung units in Vietnam, which stood at 149,000 as of end-April, is expected to surpass 150,000 soon. (Yonhap)
