SEOUL, May 7 (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics, a maker of TVs and home appliances, said on Wednesday that it has decided to discontinue sales of some consumer electronics products in mainland China amid intensifying competition in the local market.
“The company will make every effort to minimize any impact on customers resulting from this decision, and is reviewing various support measures for business partners,” Samsung said in a statement, following earlier reports in South Korean media about the exit of its TV and home appliance sales in China.
While Samsung’s memory chip business is enjoying a profit surge due to AI boom, its other products such as TVs, home appliances and mobile phones face mounting competition from Chinese rivals in China and elsewhere.
Samsung said on Monday that it has replaced the head of its TV business for the first time in more than two years.
Last December, Samsung, a longtime leader in the global TV market, was briefly overtaken by Chinese rival TCL, which recently agreed to form a strategic partnership with Japan’s Sony, according to market researcher Counterpoint.
Samsung’s TV and home appliance businesses posted losses of 200 billion won ($138.31 million) last year in the face of competition and U.S. tariffs.
The world’s No. 2 smartphone vendor also lost market share to Apple and local rivals in the Chinese market, while it also faces a growing challenge from smaller competitors, such as ChangXin Memory Technologies in the chip market.
Samsung is expected to continue sales of mobile phones and chips in China.
($1 = 1,446.0400 won)
(Reporting by Hyunjoo JinEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
