Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has made its first financial commitment for a planned flat-panel plant in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Hon Hai, known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) outside of Taiwan, on Friday deposited US$60 million to special bank accounts in Wisconsin, which Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot described as a “significant milestone that should be marked and celebrated,” the paper said.
The money is to be used by the village and Racine County to buy land for the US$10 billion state-of-the-art flat-panel plant, whose construction is to begin next month, it said.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) last month signed an agreement with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp (WEDC) to build the plant in the state.
Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has also leased a building for assembly purposes while the factory is under construction, the paper said.
Hon Hai has drawn criticism due to announced projects that did not fully materialize, it said.
However, Friday’s deposit represents a concrete “commitment of a significant amount of money to the project,” the paper added.
The iPhone assembler is to build a 5G technology ecosystem in a complex covering 486 hectares in southeastern Wisconsin to manufacture ultra-high-definition 8K panels.
The project is expected to create about 3,000 jobs in its initial stage and boost the number of new jobs to 13,000 over the following six years.
The jobs will have an estimated average annual salary of US$53,875, the company has said.
Before last month’s agreement, Wisconsin had granted Hon Hai US$3 billion in tax incentives to draw the project to the state, the largest package of subsidies ever given to a foreign company by a US state, according to US media.
In related news, Hon Hai yesterday said it will spend a total of 740.39 million yuan (US$113.19 million) to purchase two plots of land in the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone (鄭州航空港區) in China.
The plots cover 176,888m2 and 72,305m2, and their acquisition is part of the firm’s strategy to meet its operational needs, Hon Hai said in two filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Zhengzhou is Hon Hai’s main manufacturing hub for making Apple Inc’s iPhones.
Additional reporting by Lauly Li
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