Amid reports that some Note 7 replacements have caught fire, the South Korean giant Samsung Electronics Company has temporarily suspended the production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.
The halt is in cooperation with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, the US and China.
“This measure includes a Samsung plant in Vietnam that is responsible for global shipments (of the Galaxy Note 7),” Yonhap news agency quoted an official as saying.
Samsung started selling the Note 7 in South Korea on August 19 but announced a global recall of 2.5 million units in September following reports of some of the devices catching fire while being charged.
The company has encouraged owners of the Note 7 to swap their devices with new ones, but media reports said some new Note 7 in the US and Taiwan had also caught fire.
U.S. phone operators AT&T, the No.2 U.S. wireless carrier, and #3 wireless carrier T-Mobile US have already stopped giving new Note 7 replacement smartphones to consumers.
Australia’s largest carrier, Telstra Corp, said Samsung had paused supply of new Note 7s, while fellow Australian carriers Optus and Vodafone said they had stopped issuing new Note 7s.
South Korea’s two largest mobile carriers, SK Telecom and KT Corp, said they were monitoring the situation, Reuters reported.
On September 2, Samsung announced a global recall of 2.5 million Note 7s due to faulty batteries which caused some of the phones to catch fire. But similar problems arose with a replacement Note 7 on October 5, which began smoking inside a Southwest Airline flight in the United States.
Major airlines and airport authorities urged passengers to stop using the phone on board.
Hong Kong International Airport “strongly advised” passengers not to turn on or charge Note 7s on aircraft or stow the phones in checked baggage.
Singapore Airlines also banned the powering up and charging of Note 7s on all its flights.
A South Korean government agency said it was monitoring reports of the fires and warned that the recalled Note 7 devices should not be used or charged inside airplanes.
