Samsung China today announced the suspension of operations of its NAND factory in Xi’an, Shanxi Province due to the Covid-19 pandemic to protect the safety of its employees.

According to earlier reports, the factory entered an emergency state of operation on December 24, and the company is considering keeping key employees in the factory to reduce contact with people outside the factory.

The company has two factories in Xi'an, both of which are used to manufacture 3D NAND, and their production capacity accounts for 42.3% of the company's total NAND flash memory production capacity and 15.3% of the global production capacity. It is very important to the stable supply of global flash memory.

According to public information, the Xi’an factory is Samsung Electronics’ second overseas semiconductor production site after its Austin factory in the United States in 1996. It is the largest investment project in the history of Samsung Electronics’ overseas investment.