Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業), the world’s largest maker of athletic shoes, has been ordered to temporarily shut down a Vietnam unit over COVID-19 concerns, Vietnamese state media reported yesterday.
Pouyuen Vietnam Co Ltd must suspend production for two days from today after failing to meet local rules on social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
“The suspension of Pouyuen Vietnam is necessary to ensure public health, as well as the operations of the company,” Ho Chi Minh City Mayor Nguyen Thanh Phong, was quoted as saying.
The report said the company, which has about 70,000 employees and operates three shifts a day, has failed to ensure that its workers maintained a safe distance from one another.
Ho Chi Minh City earlier sought the Vietnamese prime minister’s approval to suspend production at Pouyuen Vietnam Co Ltd.
Authorities for the metropolis, which has the most confirmed virus cases in the country after Hanoi, were concerned that the outbreak would affect not only the workers, but those at neighboring firms and four bordering provinces, the mayor said on Saturday in a letter to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that was seen by Bloomberg News.
The mayor’s office confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
Pou Chen is the largest branded athletic and casual footwear producer in the world, and a manufacturer for international brands such as Nike Inc, Adidas AG and New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc among others, the company says on its Web site.
The group produces more than 300 million pairs of shoes per annum, it says, accounting for approximately 20 percent of the combined wholesale value of the global branded athletic and casual footwear market.
Ho Chi Minh City last week issued a set of indicators to assess the infection risk of companies based there in an effort to curtail the outbreak.
A firm is required to cease operations if it scores more than 80 percent, the mayor said in the letter, adding that Pouyuen was graded at 81 percent.
The firm would comply with the decision and extend the suspension if the 15-day national social distancing order imposed on April 1 is not lifted tomorrow, the letter said, citing a company leader who met authorities on Friday last week.
Vietnam had 262 COVID-19 cases as of yesterday, including 144 people who have recovered, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said.
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