Japan's Foster Electric Co. plans to launch a joint venture in Vietnam in December with China's Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics Co. to manufacture ferrite magnets, a key material for speakers.

By setting up the joint venture, Foster Electric aims to diversify the supply of ferrite magnets, now mostly from China, to "reduce its dependency on China and ensure stable procurement," the audio equipment maker said in a news release last week.

Foster Electric will have a 19.9 percent stake in the joint venture, Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics (Vietnam) Co. with capital of $5 million, while Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics, a supplier in China of ferrite magnets, will hold the remaining stake of 80.1 percent.

Products from the new company, to be established in An Phat 1 High-Tech Industrial Park in Hai Duong Province, northern Vietnam, will be delivered chiefly to Foster Electric's production bases in Vietnam.

Vietnam is the main base for speaker production for Foster Electric, a company based in western Tokyo producing and selling loudspeakers, audio equipment and electronic equipment.

The company has the Fostex brand but is better known as an original equipment manufacturing supplier of audio equipment.

Supply chain failures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic also motivated Foster Electric to promote the establishment of the joint venture, a company spokesman said.

Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics will later disclose details about the joint venture, including its production base and starting date of operations. (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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