Yonhap: LG may move phone production line to Vietnam

According to Yonhap, LG Electronics is planning to move its smartphone production line from South Korea to Vietnam in an effort to reduce costs for its slowing mobile business.

The South Korean technology company will decommission its Pyeongtaek plant, south of Seoul, by the end of this year, ready to move its production line to the Vietnamese city of Hai Phong . where other LG divisions are locating the factory.

"As LG Electronics continues to lose money in its smartphone business, it has decided to move its Korean factory to Vietnam to reduce production costs," said a source in the Korean mobile industry.

LG Electronics currently manufactures smartphones in South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil and China, with factories mainly producing high-end devices.

LG has struggled in the smartphone market for years as it faces stiff competition from Samsung Electronics and Apple in the high-end phone market and Chinese manufacturers in the lower-end segment.

LG's mobile division has been reporting losses continuously since the second quarter of 2017.

The annual revenue of LG's mobile division reached 1.7 trillion won ($1.5 billion) last year but ran a deficit of 322.2 billion won due to weak smartphone sales and rising marketing expenses.