Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee jay-yong tours a plant in Onyang, Chungcheongnam-do, handling an end process of chip-making on Aug. 5 as part of a series of field management tours he will make to look at all production processes. (Photo: Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong has initiated a strategy to maneuver the electronics maker out of the current crises, which was caused by the simmering Korean-Japanese rift and the widening trade dispute between the United States and China.

His latest move may be construed as his taking seriously the possible impact Japan’s removing Korea from the white list of countries subject to eased customs shipping-clearance procedures will have down the line.

As Samsung Electronics’ mainstay businesses such as semiconductors, display panels, secondary batteries and TVs are to be buffeted under the influence of Japan’s retaliatory economic steps, Vice Chairman Lee is believed to have accepted the responsibility to cope with the looming crises.

Japan initially imposed export curbs on three raw materials, including etching gas, considered as the Achilles tendon of Korean chip and display panel makers like Samsung Electronics.

Vice Chairman Lee showed his determination to translate the crises into an opportunity, and thereby “take a leap forward,” while talking about the future.

Vice Chairman Lee called for participants to craft strategies to cope with Japan’s export curbs in a cool-headed and detailed fashion.

Unlike the previous meeting, Vice Chairman Lee touched on new opportunities.

Samsung Electronics looks to not only seize Japan’s export curbs to Korea as an opportunity to diversify countries of raw materials, parts and equipment imports, but also have chances to upgrade the competitiveness of its businesses in return for lowering its dependence on Japanese imports.

Economic community officials pointed out that Vice Chairman Lee stressed “a leap forward” while presiding over an emergency meeting on Aug. 5. His determination to overcome the unprecedented crisis under his strong leadership may be interpreted as an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Group founder Lee Byung-chull and his father, Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who demonstrated solid leadership to get through numerous crises.

At the meeting, Vice Chairman Lee emphasized a sense of alertness as things had changed as Japan’s additional restrictions expanded the number of items subject to export curbs from an initial number of three.

With Korea’s removal from the white list, almost all Samsung products, such as semiconductors, display panels, secondary batteries, TVs and smartphones, will be placed under the influence of Japan’s export curbs to Korea.

Vice Chairman Lee’s sense of crisis was reflected in his convening of the emergency meeting in which President Han Jong-hee, head of the Visual Display Business, overseeing the TV segment, President Lee Yoon-tae of Samsung Electro-Mechanics specializing in the production of the core material multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC), and President Chung Young-hyun of Samsung SDI, a secondary battery maker, also took seats at the table.

At the meeting, he called for seamless preparations to “usher in a future with a step upward.” His father and Chairman Lee Kun-hee is still in a serious condition.

In a related development, Vice Chairman Lee made an unnoticed visit to a plant in Onyang, Chungcheongnam-do, handling an end process of chip-making on Aug. 5. Lee got a briefing on strategies to respond to Japan’s retaliatory export curbs and develop new technologies.

His visit was the first of a series of field management tours he will make to look at all production processes.

The Onyang plant was selected as Vice Chairman Lee’s first field management site since Samsung Electronics is developing a next-geneartion panel level packaging technology.

Later, Lee also toured a work site in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, to look at a semiconductor packaging line.