HANOI : Taiwan’s Pou Chen Corp, the world’s largest manufacturer of branded sports footwear, plans to cut around 6,000 jobs at its Ho Chi Minh City factory in Vietnam in several phases this year due to weak demand, two local officials familiar with the company’s plans said on Tuesday.
The firm’s Pouyuen Vietnam factory will cut 3,000 jobs this month and not extend labour contracts for 3,000 other workers later his year, the officials said, declining to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to media.
Pou Chen did not immediately respond to a request for comment and telephone calls to a factory labour union official were not answered.
The Pouyen Vietnam factory, which supplies global companies such as Nike Inc. and Adidas AG, is one the largest employers in Ho Chi Minh City, with 50,500 workers.
The plan to cut jobs marks a reversal for the company that in 2021 faced labour shortage and manufacturing disruption in Vietnam due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Southeast Asian country is a global hub for manufacturing, and its economy in 2022 grew at the fastest pace in decades, but economists have warned of headwinds, with weakening global demand starting to impact trade shipments.
Vietnam’s exports in January fell 25.9 per cent from a year earlier, while imports were down 24 per cent. A decline in imports may indicate a future contraction in industrial production as firms cut purchases of materials and equipment for production.
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