Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday it would inspect nearly 250 Chinese firms manufacturing goods for the South Korean tech giant, after a US-based group accused one supplier of using child labor.
Samsung said on-site inspections would be carried out at 105 Chinese firms with exclusive Samsung contracts, while 144 other non-exclusive suppliers would be required to provide documentary proof of their compliance with labor codes.
“We are implementing a rigorous plan to address any potential violations,” the company said in a statement, vowing to terminate contracts with any Chinese suppliers in violation of labor norms.
The one-site inspections will be carried out by a 100-member team by the end of the month, it said.
China Labor Watch, a New York-based rights group, reported last month that a firm assembling mobile phones for Samsung in Huizhou, China, HEG Electronics Co (海格國利電子), employed children under the age of 16.
Initial audits conducted by Samsung found HEG employed teenaged student workers and interns, but none younger than 16, the company said.
However, it did uncover a system of fines for lateness and absence — banned in China — as well as excessive overtime and inadequate health and safety standards.
Samsung said it had asked HEG to improve working conditions.
Separately, South Korean and German police are probing the disappearance of two next-generation Samsung TVs en route to Berlin, the electronics giant said yesterday, amid suspicions of commercial espionage.
Two organic light-emitting diode (OLED) sets were “lost” during delivery to Berlin for a technology trade fair that ran from Friday to today, Samsung said in a statement.
“Upon Samsung’s request, the [South] Korean and German authorities are currently conducting an investigation,” it said.
The state-of-the-art TVs have not been officially released in the market.
“Since these TVs are based on such cutting-edge technology owned by only a few firms, we can’t rule out the possibility that it was part of a crime aimed to steal it,” an informed source said.
Samsung, the world’s top TV producer, has promoted OLED as the next-generation technology that will help drive the future of the global television industry.
The firm and its archrival, LG Electronics Inc, plan to start selling OLED TVs by the end of this year, while Japan’s Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp have teamed up to jointly develop similar sets.
OLED TVs do not require separate backlights and thus are thinner, consume about 20 percent less power and offer a sharper picture than conventional flat-panel sets.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS