Reuters, HANOI
Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業), the world’s largest manufacturer of branded athletic and casual footwear, yesterday suspended operations at its plant in Ho Chi Minh City, as COVID-19 curbs shuttered factories in Vietnam’s business hub.
Production at Pouyuen Vietnam Co in Ho Chi Minh City, the epicenter of the nation’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, was suspended for 10 days, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said in a statement.
After successfully containing COVID-19 for much of the global pandemic, Vietnam has faced a more stubborn outbreak since late April, with daily infections climbing to record levels.
Companies in Vietnam’s business hub and its neighboring industrial provinces have been struggling to keep running, after strict movement curbs were imposed across much of the area.
Pouyuen Vietnam, the largest employer in the city with 56,000 workers, could not arrange for its workers to sleep at the site as required by authorities to allow the business to remain open, the ministry said.
Pou Chen, which manufactures footwear for companies such as Nike Inc and Adidas AG, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Pouyuen Vietnam in April last year was also ordered to suspend production for two days after failing to meet local regulations on social distancing.
State media earlier this week reported that city had ordered 29 companies in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, an industrial park, to suspend production due to the outbreak.
At the neighboring Saigon Hi-Tech Park, which houses international companies, more than 700 infections had been detected, state media reported.
City authorities had ordered firms to shut units with infected workers, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
“The highest objective at the moment is to contain the outbreak,” the paper cited Saigon Hi-Tech Park vice chairwoman Le Bich Loan as saying.
The outbreak in May forced companies in the northern industrial provinces of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang to scale down production, including Samsung Electronics Co and Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Vietnam has recorded 35,409 infections and 132 deaths.
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