Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
LG Innotek completes expansion of Vietnamese camera module plant
LG Innotek's Vietnam V3 plant in Hai Phong / Courtesy of LG Innotek
By Nam Hyun-woo
LG Innotek announced Sunday it has completed the expansion of its camera module plant in Vietnam, part of a broader strategy to cut costs by operating manufacturing hubs in both Vietnam and Korea.
The components company said it has completed the construction of the V3 plant, the latest facility at its production site in Hai Phong, and has commenced commercial operations.
The construction of the V3 plant follows LG Innotek’s July 2023 pledge to invest $1 billion in Vietnam by the end of 2025 to enhance its optical solutions production capacity.
The V3 plant spans 150,000 square meters, the size of about 20 football fields, and more than doubles the company’s overall camera module production capacity in Vietnam. With this, LG Innotek has secured the capability to supply large volumes of camera modules stably to the production lines of major smartphone makers there.
LG Innotek is also continuing its investment in optical facilities in Korea.
In March 2025, the company signed an investment agreement worth $430 million with the city government of Gumi in North Gyeongsang Province. Under the agreement, LG Innotek will invest in new facilities at its Gumi plant by the end of next year to manufacture high-value-added camera modules.
Under the multichannel strategy, LG Innotek plans to use its Gumi plant as a “mother factory” specializing in research and development, the production of high-value-added camera modules for new models and the manufacturing of optical parts for new applications. It will also use another Korean optical module production site in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, as a site for advanced camera modules and 3D sensing technologies.
The company’s production subsidiary in Vietnam will serve as a main base for manufacturing general-purpose camera modules. LG Innotek expects the strategy will give it an edge amid intensifying cost competition with Chinese component manufacturers.
Along with diversifying production channels, LG Innotek said it is adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to save costs. By using AI inspection, the company has reduced the time required to identify causes of material defects by up to 90 percent, as well as shortening the time needed to find optimal production process parameters from 72 hours to six hours.
“With the completion of the V3 plant capacity expansion in Vietnam, profitability in the camera module sector is expected to improve gradually,” LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuk-soo said. “We will continue to deliver differentiated value by swiftly proposing advanced technologies to customers, thereby strengthening our leadership in the global camera module market.”