Vingroup building second smartphone plant

The 15-hectare plant in the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park to the west of Hanoi can produce 23 million units a year in the first phase when completed in August.

When finally completed next year the plant will have a capacity of 125 million units, 25 times that of its existing plant in the northern city of Hai Phong.

The plant will maximize automation to reduce human errors.

Vingroup’s Vsmart smartphones will not be the only brand to be produced at the plant. Nguyen Viet Quang, deputy chairman and CEO of Vingroup, said the company has already received orders for contract manufacturing from large companies in Europe and the U.S.

Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate, last month began selling Vsmart phones in Myanmar after launching in Spain in March. It plans to expand to India, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia this year.

VinSmart, the electronics subsidiary of Vingroup, last year acquired the patents for its four first phones from Spanish technology firm BQ, in which it owns a 51 percent stake.

Its Hai Phong factory opened last November and is capable of making five million phones a year in the current first phase. The company rolled out its first phones last December.