SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics’ television business is expected to be less affected by U.S. tariffs than rivals because most of its TVs sold in North America are produced in Mexico, an executive said on Monday.
Still, Samsung, the world’s top TV maker, will continue to watch the changing U.S. tariff policy, and depending on tariffs, it plans to allocate production accordingly across about 10 production bases around the world, said Yong Seok-woo, president of the visual display business at Samsung.
Mexico largely escaped Trump’s new 10% global baseline tariff and steeper “reciprocal tariffs” for many trading partners on Wednesday.
In contrast, China will be hit with a 34% U.S. tariff, on top of the 20% previously imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54%.
Samsung faces increasing competition in the TV market from Chinese companies like TCL and Hisense.
Samsung is also bracing for the impact from U.S. tariffs on its other mainstay businesses such as memory chips and smartphones, which could face reduced demand.
Samsung Electronics shares on Monday slumped 4.3% amid the broader market sell-off triggered by U.S. tariff fears.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Ed Davies)
