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.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS