Earlier today, reports came through about a fire which developed in a Samsung SDI factory based in China. At the time, the information was a little limited on the cause of the fire with the news mainly focusing on the fire itself. Now though, reports are starting to come through detailing that the fire was a result of waste products, including defective batteries.
However, there seems to be some confusion among the official confirmations that are coming through. A report out of Reuters today notes that a Samsung spokesman, Shin Yong-doo, has reportedly confirmed that the fire originated in a part of the factory that is specifically used for waste. As a result, the same spokesperson confirmed that there were no casualties and the factory remained “running as normal’. Where the confusion arises is that the same report notes that the Wuqing branch of the Tianjin Fire Department is confirming (via social media) that the fire did take place within the facility and specifically, within “the production workshops”. Which seems to conflict with the official statement from the noted Samsung spokesperson.
In either case, both versions of what happened do seem to be acknowledging that faulty batteries were part of the cause of the fire. It just seems there is some discrepancy on whether the batteries were the sole contributor or not. The Tianjin Fire Department were quoted stating “material that caught fire was lithium batteries”, while the suggestion being made by the Samsung spokesperson, is that the faulty batteries were part of a wider variety of defective products that caught fire.
Going by either account, there is currently no information (or indication) that the batteries in question had anything to do with the Galaxy Note 7. Which inevitably will be one of the aspects that many might assume to be the case, due to Samsung SDI’s connection with the Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco. Likewise, this is also no reason to attribute any of this to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone, as all current information does suggest that the Galaxy S8 will not be using Samsung SDI batteries. Going back to the actual fire briefly, both accounts are making it clear that the issue has now been fully dealt with.