S. Korean companies send around 550 employees to China

Major South Korean companies, including Samsung Electronics, have sent over 550 employees to China on Thursday and Friday through the “South Korea-China quick path for businesspeople” system. Projects in China that have been suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak, such as plant capacity expansion, are expected to be resumed quickly.

Samsung Electronics has dispatched over 300 technical employees of its headquarters and partners on a chartered plane for the capacity expansion of its semiconductor plant 2 in Xi'an, China. Over 30 employees from Samsung SDI, which s operating a battery plant in Xi'an, were also on board. Such a measure was implemented three days after Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the city on his first overseas business trip since the COVID-19 outbreak.

The quick path system for businesspeople grants a 14-day quarantine wavier for businesspeople who test negative for COVID-19 both before departure and after arrival. This is the first time the South Korean electronic giant used the system to send a large number of employees overseas. When the company dispatched around 200 employees to Xi'an in April before the introduction of the system, it requested “special entry” to bypass quarantine.

The Xi'an plant is the only overseas memory semiconductor manufacturing hub of Samsung Electronics with a total of 15 billion dollars of investment underway.

Kia Motors has also dispatched around 100 employees to its plant in Yancheng, China on a chartered plane while SK Innovation has sent about 120 employees on Thursday who will work in the construction site of the company’s Yancheng battery plant.


warum@donga.com