Footwear maker Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業) yesterday said that it has suspended production at its plant in Myanmar amid clashes between police and protesters following a military coup on Feb. 1, in which the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Pou Chen provides original design manufacturing services to international brands, such as Nike Inc, Adidas AG, Asics Corp, New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc, Timberland Co and Salomon SAS.
The company said that the decision to stop production was made out of safety considerations.
Photo: EPA-EFE/STR
The suspension is not expected to have an adverse effect on Pou Chen’s overall operations, as the Burmese plant accounts for a fraction of its total production, the company said.
Its factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar account for about 4 percent of the firm’s total production, Pou Chen said, adding that the closure of the Burmese manufacturing facility would not cause any delays in shipments to customers.
If greater capacity is needed to meet demand, production would be increased at its plants in Indonesia and Vietnam to fill the void left by the Burmese plant, the company said.
Pou Chen’s business has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with revenue from its shoe contracting business falling 24.6 percent last year from a year earlier.
Tsang Yi Co (昌億), another Taiwanese footwear maker that supplies shoes to Adidas, has also halted its production in Myanmar amid the violence there, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Invest Taiwan office said.
Pou Chen and Tsang Yi suspended their Burmese operations to protect their employees, and it is unclear when production would resume given the turmoil in the country, the office said.
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