LG Innotek to spend $1 bn to double Vietnam output capacity

South Korea’s LG Innotek Co., a major camera module supplier for Apple iPhones, is set to invest $1 billion in Vietnam to more than double its production capacity in the Southeast Asian country.

LG Innotek said on Monday it plans to spend the money from July of this year to December 2025 to build a new camera module factory at its production complex in Hai Phong, a key industrial city in northeastern Vietnam. The company is scheduled to complete the construction of the plant in the second half of 2024 with a target of launching commercial operations in 2025.

The city government is poised to install substations for the new factory and offer tax breaks.

LG Innotek’s Vietnamese subsidiary, which opened in September 2016, mainly produces camera modules for smartphones. A camera module is an image sensor integrated with a lens, control electronics, and an interface like CSI, Ethernet or plain raw low-voltage differential signaling.

TO STRENGTHEN SUPPLY CHAIN AT HOME, ABROAD

The subsidiary reported sales of 4.3 trillion won ($3.3 billion) in 2022, the largest revenue among LG Innoket’s overseas units.

LG Innotek is currently operating three core production bases for camera modules – two in South Korea and one in Vietnam.

The company has also been investing billions of dollars in South Korea. It unveiled a plan to invest 1.4 trillion won in expanding facilities for semiconductor substrates and camera modules.

“We plan to improve our global business competitiveness by strengthening the supply chain at home and abroad,” said LG Innotek CEO and President Jeong Cheol-Dong.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.