Foxconn Plans To Expand Manufacturing Operations In U.S. Alongside Mac Production

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Tim Cook visits Foxconn, where Apple's iMacs are traditionally assembled, in 2011.
Tim Cook visits Foxconn, where Apple's iMacs are traditionally assembled, in 2011.

Tim Cook announced that Apple is ready to invest $100 million into bringing some of its Mac production back to the U.S. in 2013. Foxconn, the major supplier to Apple, said that they’re ready to expand in the U.S. too, as more of their clients have requested their products be made in the U.S.A.

As Foxconn’s biggest client and the largest technology company in the world, Apple’s move to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. could trigger more companies to follow suit, and Foxconn wants to meet the challenge.

Louis Woo, a Foxconn spokeman, told Bloomberg in a phone interview this morning:

“We are looking at doing more manufacturing in the U.S. because, in general, customers want more to be done there. Supply chain is one of the big challenges for U.S. expansion. In addition, any manufacturing we take back to the U.S. needs to leverage high-value engineering talent there in comparison to the low-cost labor of China.”

For the past few years technology companies have claimed that bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. is nearly impossible due not only to higher-cost labor, but also because the workforce is smaller in the U.S. and Chinese manufacturers operate within close proximity of one another, making supply chain issues easier to manage as well as keeping production costs lower.

Last month, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said he wants to bring U.S. engineers to Asia to train them in manufacturing before bringing them back home to work.

 

Source: Bloomberg

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