Samsung Electronics is reviewing building a home appliance plant in the US in response to US President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist policies, the tech firm said Monday.

“It is true we are considering the establishment of an appliance factory in the US. It is natural that an enterprise responds accordingly when a client nation’s policy changes,” a Samsung Electronics official told The Korea Herald. “Nothing has been confirmed yet.” 

North America is currently Samsung’s largest home appliance market. Samsung is gaining around 30 percent sales of the total appliance sales from the US consumers, selling high-end products such as Family Hub refrigerators or premium quantum dot light-emitting diode televisions.

The Korean tech firm has so far been using its Mexico plants as a base to ship to the US, capitalizing on lower labor costs, no tariffs and geographical benefits. It has a plant in Tijuana, which produces televisions and monitors, and a factory in Queretaro making refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners.

Samsung Electronics gained the largest 18.8 percent of share in the US home appliance market in the third quarter of last year, according to US market research firm Traqline. The firm has been promoting its premium appliance lineups by setting up Samsung Open House events at 300 stores of US consumer electronics retailer Best Buy since May last year.

Samsung’s local rival LG Electronics also recently hinted at the possibility of building a plant in the US. The firm’s newly appointed CEO Jo Seong-jin said at the latest Consumer Electronics Show that it would finalize a possibility of building a new plant in the US within the first half of this year.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)