Trump's tariff decisions may urge Samsung to shift US supplies to India

By closely monitoring the Trump administration's ongoing trade negotiations, Samsung is now preparing to supply products to the US market from multiple manufacturing locations, including India if required, depending on the outcomes. A senior executive from the South Korean electronics giant admitted that the "very high" uncertainty in America necessitated its state of preparedness for various scenarios. Samsung asserted that it has a well-strategized diversification plan in place and would respond with flexibility.

"Samsung has production presence in several countries. Uncertainty in the US is currently very high and because of that we have been preparing against a number of different scenarios. We are ready to produce for the US from multiple factories, including India," Samsung's global president and chief operating officer (mobile experience division) Won-Joon Choi said on the sidelines of the company's global launch of Galaxy Fold7 (priced upwards of Rs 1.75 lakh) and Flip7 (Rs 1.1 lakh) devices here. "We are already manufacturing some of the smartphones that are going to the US at our factory in India."

He said the company has been watching US president Donald Trump's tariff announcements carefully and this can lead to change in sourcing across global factories. "One of the things that we have prepared was to have diversification of our factories for the product we will ship to the US. Depending on the final decision by the Trump administration, we have already established a system in which we can shift from one (location) to another to respond to the final decision more flexibly.