South Korean home appliances giant Samsung has announced that it has temporarily shut down its washing machine plant in Newberry County, South Carolina, once again. Samsung's Newberry plant in the US produces one million washing machines, including the Energy Star-certified models, every year and employs around 1,000 people.
Operations at the company's plant were closed last week after two employees had tested positive for COVID-19. However, the company reopened the plant yesterday even as one more employee had tested positive for the virus. The company announced a few hours ago that it intends to keep the operations at its $380 million washing machine plant suspended until April 19 to save its employees from contracting the novel virus, which has killed close to 13,000 people in the US alone.
Samsung is also considering closing its TV plant in Tijuana, Mexico, next week due to the lockdown situation in the country. The South Korean smartphone giant was forced to close its factories in Brazil, India, Slovakia, South Korea, Vietnam, and the US.
The pandemic also hit the sales of the Galaxy S20 series and the company's revenue for the first quarter of 2020. Samsung is bracing for an even bigger dent in sales for the next quarter as consumers are saving themselves from spending on high-price products such as smartphones and TVs.
