fire at samsung sdi china plant caused by faulty batteries - lithium battery suppliers
Chiang Sijia and Port Kim/SEOUL (Reuters)-
The South Korean company and local emergency services said a small fire at a factory in China's Samsung SDI Co. , Ltd. on Wednesday was caused by scrap products including faulty batteries.
A Samsung spokesman said the fire, which occurred earlier on Wednesday at the Samsung Electronics Co. , Ltd. affiliated factory in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, had been put out, adding that the operation of the plant had no casualties or significant impact.
Shen Yong, a Samsung SDI spokesman, said the fire did not occur on the production line, but in some of the facilities used for waste, including faulty batteriesdoo.
He added that most of the factories are in normal operation.
However, the local fire department said on its microblog that the fire was caused by batteries inside the facility.
"The materials on fire are lithium batteries and some half in the production workshop.
Tianjin fire department Wuqing branch said in a post posted on its verified Sina Weibo account.
It added that it had dispatched 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to put out the fire.
SDI will start providing batteries for Samsung's upcoming flagship smartphone Galaxy S8 in the first quarter of this year.
S8 replaced the Galaxy Note 7 model, which was recalled globally last year due to battery defects.
Samsung said last month that China Amperex Technology Ltd, two battery suppliers for SDI and Note 7, was the culprit of the product's failure, which cost $5.
Operating profit 3 billion.
The Tianjin plant is one of SDI's five production centers in China and the main production center for small batteries for mobile phones. (
Reports by Jiang Sijia in Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea;
Adam Zhu Dan and Louise Tian editor)