Vietnamese officials have called on Apple supplier Foxconn (2317.TW), opens new tab to voluntarily reduce power use by 30% at its assembly plants in the north of the country where there were electricity outages last year, two people familiar with the matter said.
The request for energy-saving measures, which two other industry sources said was sent to multiple manufacturers, is precautionary and aimed at averting a repeat of last summer when power shortage led to over a billion dollars in lost output.
The request to Foxconn was “an encouragement”, not a requirement and has not had any impact on production, one of the people said.
Vietnam is increasingly welcoming multinational companies, some spreading their risk from traditional manufacturing base China amid rising trade tension with the U.S. Last month, Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab promised further spending in the country where over the past year it has raised its number of suppliers to 35 from 25.
The southeast Asian nation relies on foreign investment for economic growth and has been trying to attract energy-intensive industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing.
However, a heat wave last May and June triggered a power shortage that interrupted business in the north, causing $1.4 billion worth of loss, or 0.3% of gross domestic product, World Bank preliminary estimates showed.
In March, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pledged to foreign investors that power shortages would not happen again.
The government has asked coal-fired power plants to delay maintenance to meet higher electricity demand in the hottest months, one of the people said.
1 Comment
Vietnamese officials have called on Apple supplier Foxconn (2317.TW), opens new tab to voluntarily reduce power use by 30% at its assembly plants in the north of the country where there were electricity outages last year, two people familiar with the matter said.
The request for energy-saving measures, which two other industry sources said was sent to multiple manufacturers, is precautionary and aimed at averting a repeat of last summer when power shortage led to over a billion dollars in lost output.
The request to Foxconn was “an encouragement”, not a requirement and has not had any impact on production, one of the people said.
Vietnam is increasingly welcoming multinational companies, some spreading their risk from traditional manufacturing base China amid rising trade tension with the U.S. Last month, Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab promised further spending in the country where over the past year it has raised its number of suppliers to 35 from 25.
The southeast Asian nation relies on foreign investment for economic growth and has been trying to attract energy-intensive industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing.
However, a heat wave last May and June triggered a power shortage that interrupted business in the north, causing $1.4 billion worth of loss, or 0.3% of gross domestic product, World Bank preliminary estimates showed.
In March, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pledged to foreign investors that power shortages would not happen again.
The government has asked coal-fired power plants to delay maintenance to meet higher electricity demand in the hottest months, one of the people said.