Myeong-seok Chae, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

SAMSUNG Electronics has taken emergency measures to keep its chip plant in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an running by putting as much as available workers, including employees living in dormitories near the workplace, into production lines.

Samsung’s move came as authorities in Xi’an has begun widespread disinfection measures since late Sunday to counter a jump in COVID infections in the city that forced the lockdown of 13 million residents.

Under the lockdown regulation, companies have to introduce a teleworking mode and only one member of the family is allowed to go out once every two days to purchase daily necessities.

Samsung said there is no operation disruption at its Xi’an chip manufacturing plant as it currently uses all available workers.

Samsung’s Xi’an plant, which started operation in 2014, is the South Korean giant’s only global memory plant. Including the second plant that started operation last year, it accounts for about 40 percent of Samsung’s total NAND flash production.