Panasonic to Move Bangkok-Based Factories to Vietnam by March 2021

Panasonic will shut down a appliance factory in Thailand this fall to merge its manufacturing into larger facility in Vietnam for greater efficiency, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Washing Machine production will stop in September, follows by the closure of appliance factory in October, and a research and development center will close by the end of March 2021.

Panasonic currently has about 800 employees in Bangkok-based factory that likely to lost their jobs, but will be helped to place some of the workers in other jobs based on their qualifications. However, after the closures, Panasonic will still have around 13,700 workers involved in the manufacture of small appliances and batteries in Thailand with 18 business units.

As a plan to decrease its operating cost, the 2 units from Thailand will move to joint the production in Hanoi, Vietnam, the  Panasonic largest refrigerators and washing machines manufacturing in Southeast Asia.

“Panasonic will reorganize its white goods production sites in Southeast Asia, and transfer the production of washing machines and refrigerators in Thailand to Vietnam,” the company said in an statement emailed to Reuters.

There won’t be a big change on Panasonic output, as the firm still has 8,000 workers in Vietnam. 

Japanese appliance-maker is undergo of restructuring, targeting on decrease its cost approx. 100,000 million yen or 930 million dollars.