14 DAY TRIAL // Despite discontinuing its flagship smartphone last month after two global recalls, Samsung's market value hasn't dropped at all and customers continue to trust the South Korean brand. Unfortunately, we can't say the same thing about Samsung SDI, the main supplier for the Galaxy Note 7 batteries.
Samsung SDI was considered the responsible party after the first Galaxy Note 7 recall, even if the smartphone continued to catch fire although it was packed with batteries provided by China's Amperex Technology.
The damage was done and there was nothing that Samsung SDI could do, just limit this damage if possible.
Even if Samsung SDI managed to reassure its main customers that its batteries were safe to use and that it would do everything to find the reason of the Galaxy Note 7's failure, the South Korean company still struggles to add new customers.
According to Reuters, Samsung SDI lost around one-fifth of its market value since the Galaxy Note 7 recalls, and its Q3's operating loss was more than double that of a year earlier.
Even Apple was worried about the issues, as the Cupertino-based company asked Samsung SDI whether batteries used in their product were safe.
Furthermore, SDI officially confirmed that the battery issue was limited to the Note 7 and that its investigation revealed that products with major customers did not have a similar problem.
Surprisingly, an SDI official said that one of the reasons the issue was specific to the Galaxy Note 7's battery is the fact that Samsung requested a bigger battery capacity for its flagship and did not let the supplier decide on important aspects of development.
“It's a matter of our capability. We thought we had control (over all aspects of manufacturing), but it turned out there were some aspects we weren't able to govern. We focused on boosting battery capacity, but this could have been disadvantageous to reliability.”
Although Apple's orders make up a third of its revenues, Samsung SDI is now looking to add new customers since it wants to extend into electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage systems.
Sadly, new customers are reluctant to working with Samsung SDI following the Galaxy Note 7's legacy, even though the battery supplier has managed to convince current customers that its products are safe to use.