Suppliers are competing over the most critical component of Samsung’s foldables

Another part manufacturer is looking to get a piece of the foldable smartphone market by lending its expertise to Samsung. Reportedly, a company called AU Flex wants to become a hinge supplier for the Korean tech giant, though it might not be the only one aiming to fill this role.

Samsung reportedly wants to increase its foldable device yearly production capacity to 25 million. Because of this, at least one component manufacturer — AU Flex — is now looking to sign an agreement with Samsung. However, it might not be the only one. Supplying parts to Samsung — especially for the emerging foldable segment — can mean significant profit for a supply chain company, so evidently, competition is heating up.

The foldable form factor is creating new revenue avenues for suppliers

According to unnamed industry sources cited by The Elec, another company that’s looking to become a hinge supplier for Samsung’s foldable devices is Fine Technix. This supplier is already collaborating with Samsung and is presently responsible for supplying metal backplates for the Galaxy Z Flip 3.

Aside from these two potential new suppliers, Samsung is already working with two other companies to acquire its hinges, and they don’t seem to want to walk away anytime soon. KH Vatec has been Samsung’s primary supplier of hinge technologies for foldable smartphones since before the original Galaxy Fold was introduced in 2019. A year later, the Korean tech giant also secured S-Connect as a hinge supplier.

Simply put, with Samsung now aiming to sell millions more foldable devices every year, its current two suppliers might not be able to handle the load. For suppliers who aren’t in Samsung’s supply chain yet, hinge technologies represent new avenues of revenue, as well as an opportunity to establish themselves as main players in the emerging high-end foldable segment early on.