Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it planned to spend 1 billion reais (US$494 million) to build new factories in Brazil that will be tasked with manufacturing Apple’s iPhones and iPads, among other electronic components, making it the group’s latest overseas investment.
The announcement came 15 months after group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) revealed that Foxconn was in talks with Brazil’s government to build factories to make tablet computers.
Gou said the group would collaborate with its clients in search of new growth in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia and South Africa, which is part of the group’s five-year program to spur growth.
With the 1 billion reais investment, Foxconn will open five factories in an industrial park in Itu, a city near Sao Paulo, said Simon Hsing (邢治平), spokesman of Foxconn’s flagship company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密).
The new facilities are scheduled to crank out their first batch of products in 2014 and are expected to reach full capacity by 2016, Foxconn said, confirming a report by the Agencia Estado news agency on Tuesday.
Foxconn said it also planned to manufacture cables, cameras, touch-sensor glass, LED products, printed-circuit boards (PCBs) and other components.
The investment will create 10,000 jobs, Gou told shareholders, adding that Foxconn had already hired about 6,000 workers in Brazil.
Foxconn now assembles Apple products at a plant in Jundiai and operates four other plants in Sao Paulo and three plants in other states of the Latin American country.
Foxconn’s Brazil unit chief executive officer Henry Cheng (鄭家純) is set to sign a memorandum of understanding with Luciano Almeida, president of Investe Sao Paulo, at the Palacio dos Bandeirantes, Hsing said.
Investe Sao Paulo is the gateway for foreign companies that intend to settle their operations in the state of Sao Paulo. Hsing said the technology group would not benefit from special tax incentives from the state government of Sao Paulo.
Gou said in June last year that he was in discussion with the Brazilian government to help the country build a technology center and build an electronics supply chain. He said 14 Taiwanese companies, including Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), had agreed to join this program.
As part of that program, China’s biggest PC brand, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), has announced a plan to build a plant in Itu, Agencia Estado quoted Almeida as saying in Tuesday’s report.
Hon Hai shares rose 0.83 percent to NT$96.9 yesterday in Taipei trading yesterday, out-performing the benchmark TAIEX, which gained 0.62 percent.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS