Samsung, a prominent South Korean appliance manufacturer, will expand production at its Newberry, South Carolina facility. To celebrate the official start of the expansion, members of Samsung Electronics visited the Newberry plant. Currently, about 100 Samsung employees from South Korea are on the scene to help settle the new facility. They will train local employees on all technologies and skillsets needed to run the new machines.
Since Samsung officially announced the opening of the new manufacturing plant in Newberry County, they have hired more than 800 local workers to get operations underway. Of the workers, 90% are originally from Newberry County or surrounding regions. This project is slated to create more than 1,000 local jobs in South Carolina by 2020. Additionally, Samsung plans to invest $380 million in a separate Newberry County facility which will produce one million washing machines this year. This facility will also offer prompt delivery to US customers.
In addition to providing job opportunities and investment, Samsung has a philanthropic presence in South Carolina. The company recently donated 10 South Carolina-made washing machines to Newberry-based organizations, Boys Farm and the Freedom and Hope Foundation, as well as a washing machine to the Newberry County Museum.
Samsung has already committed to South Carolina in many ways. Last December, Samsung collaborated with the University of South Carolina and Clemson University to make the Newberry plant a center for research and development. Both universities were chosen because of their renowned research programs in engineering, information technology, and computer science. This R&D program is called Palmetto Consortium for Home Appliance Innovation (PCHAI). It will promote innovation and cultivate the next generation of local professionals in South Carolina. Since June 2017, Samsung has hosted several job fairs and developed a curriculum to incubate local talent. Through these opportunities, researchers and students from South Carolina can develop their expertise in engineering and computing into business knowledge. In March, Samsung partnered with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to provide educational programming to expose US students to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In total, Samsung has created 20,000 US jobs through its investments in South Carolina, the expansion of its Austin, Texas semiconductor facility, and the acquisition of Connecticut-based HARMAN International.
Yeseul Oh is a Research Intern at the East-West Center in Washington D.C. and an Asan Wahshington Young fellow with the Asan Academy in Seoul. She is a student of Kyunghee university in South Korea