Several Taiwanese manufacturers in Vietnam have been struggling with production problems over the past few weeks, as the country’s south remains under a COVID-19 lockdown.
Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業), an original design manufacturer for international footwear brands, said that production at its factory in Ho Chi Minh City has ground to a halt, so it expects a significant drop in revenue at that factory from July to last month.
If the COVID-19 outbreak in southern Vietnam subsides in the fourth quarter of this year and employees are allowed to return to work, they might be able to put in some overtime, which would make up for the third-quarter losses, Pou Chen said.
Photo: Reuters
In the south of Vietnam, the government’s strict lockdown order was on Thursday last week extended for at least another two weeks.
An executive at Pou Chen’s Vietnamese subsidiary said that the company has been adhering to government regulations and has been trying to speed up the vaccination of its 100,000 workers in an effort to help curb the COVID-19 outbreak.
The subsidiary manufactures shoes not only in Ho Chi Minh City, but also in Dong Nai and Tay Ninh provinces in southeastern Vietnam, as well as Tien Giang Province in the south, the executive said.
Another Taiwanese contract footwear maker, Feng Tay Enterprises Co (豐泰企業), said production at its Vietnamese factories has been suspended for about two months.
Feng Tay said it had planned to reassign production to China, Indonesia and India, but its factories in those countries are almost at full capacity, so it has decided to wait until it is allowed to resume work in Vietnam.
Its clients are aware of the situation and are prepared to wait, the company added.
Fu Sheng Industrial Co (復盛應用), a Taiwanese company that makes golf club heads, said its production in Vietnam had been suspended since the end of July, but it was optimistic that the situation would gradually return to normal in the fourth quarter, as the vaccination rate in Vietnam has been rising.
Fu Sheng said it would boost production when the Vietnamese government lifts the lockdown.
Some production has been reassigned to China to make up for the losses in Vietnam, but that has been limited because its factories in China are almost at full capacity, the company said.
Demand for golf club heads is strong in Japan, South Korea and the US, Fu Sheng added.
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