Samsung weighing $1B Vietnamese investment

• Samsung (OTC:SSNLF, OTC:SSNGY) is thinking of investing $1B to build a third electronics plant in Vietnam - likely at a high-tech park in Ho Chi Minh City.
• The investment would significantly grow Samsung's footprint in an increasingly popular low-cost manufacturing hub. As it is, Samsung has been shifting production from China to Vietnam on account of rising wages in the former country.
• Samsung's efforts to keep costs down come as it deals with toughening low-end Android competition from Chinese OEMs and white-label firms. Low-end competition was arguably the biggest reason Samsung's smartphone share slipped in Q1 following many uninterrupted quarters of share gains.