Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday confirmed rumors it plans to produce masks in Taiwan amid the expanding COVID-19 outbreak.
The world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer said it has contacted suppliers of raw materials and machinery equipment to produce masks for its home market.
While it gave few details about its production goals, the company, headquartered in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城), said it hopes to contribute to Taiwanese society through its mask production.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
The company’s statement came after New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said in an interview yesterday morning that Hon Hai had earlier reached out to the city about manufacturing masks for the domestic market as Taiwan continues to face a shortage, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday.
Hon Hai plans to set up 10 mask production lines at facilities held by its Hong-Kong listed subsidiary, FIT Hon Teng Ltd (鴻騰精密), in the city by the end of this month, the company said.
Mass production is scheduled to begin next month with an estimated daily output of 1 million units, Hon Hai said.
The company, known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been hit by production delays at its Chinese assembly plants caused by the outbreak, and has already planned to produce masks in China so that it can ensure a steady supply for its China-based employees.
Earlier this month, it began trial production of masks through its Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (富士康工業互聯網) subsidiary at its Longhua Park plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
The Longhua Park plant is expected to produce 2 million masks per day by the end of the month, the company said.
Its mask output in Taiwan would also contribute to the government’s centralized mask distribution policy, which has been extended until the end of April.
Domestic production of masks, which the Ministry of Economic Affairs is supervising, has increased from 4.2 million units per day last week to 5.5 million units per day this week, ministry data showed.
Total production is expected to amount to 10 million masks on a daily basis by the end of next month, the ministry said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
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