Foxconn to expand American manufacturing operations

Foxconn is planning an expansion of its American operations. Foxconn is known for manufacturing Apple products, along with those from companies such as Samsung and HTC, and this news comes after Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that one of Apple?s Mac lines will be manufactured in the United States starting next year, with Apple investing $100 million in that operation. It is not known at this time if Foxconn will partner with Apple for this Mac line. As Bloomberg reports, the challenges facing Foxconn in this expansion are primarily about skill level and experience:

?Supply chain is one of the big challenges for U.S. expansion,? Woo said. ?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.?

Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, who founded the maker of iPhones, iPads, PlayStations and televisions in Taipei 38 years ago, wants to bring U.S. engineers to Asia to train them in manufacturing before deploying them back home, he said at a forum last month.

Foxconn already has a presence in the United States, with factories in Texas and California that manufacture partially-assebled products. But expansion into the United States comes as the electronics manufacturer is increasingly under fire for its labor practices in China, and more and more of the mainstream has become aware of just where their gadgets come from. Though both the processors and glass for iPhones are produced in the United States, many have called for Apple to manufacture the phones themselves here as well. With Foxconn expanding their U.S. manufacturing, the day when iPhones say ?Made in the United States of America? might be closer than we think.

Source: Bloomberg

EMS TECHNOLOGIES EMC ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS ELECTRONIC ARTS