A Samsung Battery Factory Exploded Because 2017
A section of Samsung SDI's battery manufacturing facility in Tianjin, China exploded on Wednesday morning, Reuters reports. Of course it did.
A photo of the smoking Samsung SDI factory posted to the Chinese social network Weibo
Weibo / Via tech.sina.com.cn
It was the part of the factory that deals with waste from the battery-making process. Faulty lithium ion batteries caught fire, according to the local fire department, which sent 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to the factory. There were no casualties, and the factory's operations weren't significantly impacted, according to Reuters.
Of course it did. Because 2017. It wasn't enough to have exploding phones in 2016. Now this devil year is blowing up the places where Samsung makes its phones.
Samsung has blamed its battery manufacturing partners, Samsung SDI and Amperex, for the problems that dogged its Galaxy Note7 smartphone.
Another photo of the Samsung SDI factory posted to Weibo.
Weibo / Via tech.sina.com.cn
This isn't Samsung's first explosion. Oh no. You may have heard about the Samsung Galaxy Note7, the phone that was the mascot of 2016.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled 2.5 million Note7s in September 2016 for fire hazards posed by the lithium ion battery — the same type of battery linked to the fire in the Tianjin factory on Wednesday. Samsung entirely halted global production of the Note7 over similar concerns after replacement phones also caught fire.
In case you blacked out 2016 (understandable), here's a video of the Note7 smoking in an unsuspecting person's home.
There's also the small matter of the 2.8 million exploding washing machines Samsung later recalled.
The factory explosion might not help Samsung's image in China, where consumers aren't happy about how it handled the whole Note7 debacle. After the official recall in the US, Samsung told Chinese consumers that their Galaxy Note7s, which were manufactured by a different company than phones sold elsewhere, were fine. But these phones were exploding too. Eventually, Samsung got around to recalling the phone globally.
Smoke from the Samsung SDI factory as faulty batteries burned.
Weibo / Via tech.sina.com.cn
Overall, though, the factory fire probably won't hurt Samsung's profits.
The quarter after the Note7 recall, the Korean conglomerate posted its highest profits in three years.