Foxconn plans to double size of iPhone plant

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Chinese manufacturer and Apple partner Foxconn plans to expand the size of its iPhone-producing Zhengzhou plant, with the $1.1 billion construction expected to make it the largest smartphone-producing facility in the world.



Chinese language newspaper China Daily reported on Monday that Apple's Chinese manufacturing partner plans to double the size of its smartphone plant at Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou, which currently produces over 200,000 iPhones a day.



Foxconn's plans call for a $1.1 billion addition to the facility located in Central China's Henan province, with boosted revenue from the massive expansion expected to bring in $20 billion in sales revenue in 2012.



Apple's primary iPhone manufacturer will increase the number of production lines to 95 and add to its over 1 million mainland China employees, 130,000 of whom work at the Zhengzhou facility. Foxconn currently employs a total of 1.2 million people and supplies electronics to a number of worldwide companies.



The Taiwan-based company also operates a production facility in Brazil which also produces certain iPhone models, and is currently trying to iron out local legal issues so that it can fulfill a $12 billion investment to build an iPad manufacturing plant in the region.



Recent rumors suggest that Foxconn will begin producing the next-gen iPad 3 in January, which is expected to include a display with a similar pixel density to iPhone 4 and 4S Retina Displays.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 57
    Wonderful; that should cut ship times by quite a bit, even in the heavy seasons.



    Also, in before this moves from talk about how much better this will be for iPhone availability to talk about how much worse the workers will be treated and how this is somehow directly and exclusively Apple's responsibility.
  • Reply 2 of 57
    conradjoeconradjoe Posts: 1,887member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post




    Recent rumors suggest that Foxconn will begin producing the next-gen iPad 3 in January, which is expected to include a display with a similar resolution to iPhone 4 and 4S Retina Displays.








    The next-gen iPad will be an iPad 2S. It will not have a retina screen. It will have Siri and a faster processor.



    That is what Apple has always done with its products.
  • Reply 3 of 57
    Nice to see my money is such a strong stimulant for Chinese job creation.



    If I could find another company to satisfy my tech lust that actually made their products in America, I wouldn't hesitate to abandon Apple for their goods. Unfortunately they're all in on it. Even Samsung, who I thought made their stuff in Korea, has relocated large portions (if not most) of its manufacturing to China.



    You can't win.
  • Reply 4 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacVicta View Post


    You can't win.



    You can if you're Amish. Not only is everything you buy made in America, it's all local!
  • Reply 5 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    You can if you're Amish. Not only is everything you buy made in America, it's all local!



    Not everything. I was at an Amish community in Mo. and my buddy bought an Amish straw hat. As we drove down the road, he looked inside and it said ' Made in Mexico'.
  • Reply 6 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacVicta View Post


    Nice to see my money is such a strong stimulant for Chinese job creation.



    If I could find another company to satisfy my tech lust that actually made their products in America, I wouldn't hesitate to abandon Apple for their goods. Unfortunately they're all in on it. Even Samsung, who I thought made their stuff in Korea, has relocated large portions (if not most) of its manufacturing to China.



    You can't win.



    Word of advice: Breathe.



    With the most recent note that Chinese manufacturing profits are at 2% only made up by massive volumes it's rather clear that even that centralized Far East model will soon be failling.



    The only solution will become one that Foxconn itself is realizing: Regional manufacturing.



    In short, with advanced materials [GlobalFoundries, IBM, TSMC and yes Samsung] have this quarter began it's $4.4 Billion upstate NY expansion and the new Fab going on-line already it's rather clear that regional fabs will become a reality.



    This will provide Apple and others a means to develop Global Fab Contracts and allow a shorter-to-market turn around and thus justify having regional fabs.



    With advanced materials research in the US this country is poised to be prime for heavy investment.



    Current electronics with rare earth metals concentrated locally in China will begin to lose it's allure as alternative materials far more common and abundant across the globe allow the holders of key research [like the US] to regain a big footing. Still, you want to spread those suppliers regionally. A lot of the product price tag is wasted in distribution and development between suppliers and engineering firms designing the product.



    Cutting down time to market will be where firms can satisfy share holders while providing more jobs globally.



    Fuel costs make shipping products 10,000 miles away not nearly as attractive as it once was when costs were 1/10th they are today. Fuel isn't going to ever return to a low cost until alternative energy sources become cheaply accessible and that is where another battle for greed will create another recession or two.
  • Reply 7 of 57
    cgjcgj Posts: 276member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacVicta View Post


    You can't win.



    Unless you're Charlie Sheen...
  • Reply 8 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacVicta View Post


    Nice to see my money is such a strong stimulant for Chinese job creation.



    If I could find another company to satisfy my tech lust that actually made their products in America, I wouldn't hesitate to abandon Apple for their goods. Unfortunately they're all in on it. Even Samsung, who I thought made their stuff in Korea, has relocated large portions (if not most) of its manufacturing to China.



    You can't win.



    The A5 processors in the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 are produced in Texas. Also, did you see the article reposted on almost every tech site last week about how little added value the Chinese production of Apple devices ends up being? Bringing those jobs to America wouldn't contribute very much and you'd probably have about as hard a time finding people who wanted to work in those factories for minimum wage as farmers in southern and western US do finding migrant harvesters to bring in the crops.
  • Reply 9 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacVicta View Post


    Nice to see my money is such a strong stimulant for Chinese job creation.



    If I could find another company to satisfy my tech lust that actually made their products in America, I wouldn't hesitate to abandon Apple for their goods. Unfortunately they're all in on it. Even Samsung, who I thought made their stuff in Korea, has relocated large portions (if not most) of its manufacturing to China.



    You can't win.



  • Reply 10 of 57
    conradjoeconradjoe Posts: 1,887member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by inkswamp View Post






    LOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
  • Reply 11 of 57
    Yay, more jobs to China!
  • Reply 12 of 57
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post




    Fuel costs make shipping products 10,000 miles away not nearly as attractive as it once was when costs were 1/10th they are today. Fuel isn't going to ever return to a low cost until alternative energy sources become cheaply accessible and that is where another battle for greed will create another recession or two.



    Fuel prices are up. They're not up 10x. And they're not enough to move the needle on production decisions.
  • Reply 13 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post




    Yay, more jobs to China!



    The jobs are there anyway... and that's not gonna change any time soon.



    Tons of companies use Foxconn for manufacturing:



    Acer Inc. (Taiwan)

    Amazon.com (United States)

    Apple Inc. (United States)

    ASRock (Taiwan)

    Asus (Taiwan)

    Barnes & Noble (United States)

    Cisco (United States)

    Dell (United States)

    EVGA Corporation (United States)

    Hewlett-Packard (United States)

    Intel (United States)

    IBM (United States)

    Lenovo (China)

    Microsoft (United States)

    MSI (Taiwan)

    Motorola (United States)

    Netgear (United States)

    Nintendo (Japan)

    Nokia (Finland)

    Panasonic (Japan)

    Philips (Netherlands)

    Samsung (South Korea)

    Sharp (Japan)

    Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)

    Toshiba (Japan)

    Vizio (United States)
  • Reply 14 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post




    Fuel costs make shipping products 10,000 miles away not nearly as attractive as it once was when costs were 1/10th they are today. Fuel isn't going to ever return to a low cost until alternative energy sources become cheaply accessible and that is where another battle for greed will create another recession or two.



    True... fuel is expensive.



    However... if Apple is selling 200,000 iPhones a day... they are probably producing close to 200,000 iPhones a day as well.



    The money they save by having Foxconn manufacturer all those iPhones... rather than a more expensive factory geographically closer... is probably pretty substantial.



    Besides... if Apple can ship 5,000,000 iPhones at once on a boat across the ocean... they're probably not feeling the fuel crunch at all. The shipping cost per unit is minuscule at that scale.
  • Reply 15 of 57
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Michael Scrip View Post


    True... fuel is expensive.



    However... if Apple is selling 200,000 iPhones a day... they are probably producing close to 200,000 iPhones a day as well.



    The money they save by having Foxconn manufacturer all those iPhones... rather than a more expensive factory geographically closer... is probably pretty substantial.



    Besides... if Apple can ship 5,000,000 iPhones at once on a boat across the ocean... they're probably not feeling the fuel crunch at all. The shipping cost per unit is minuscule at that scale.



    It might as well be zero. Even if they ship them by air (which is more likely) the fuel cost is essentially zero. Imagine how many iPhones can sit in that coach seat? Maybe 50? Then consider the fact that on a fedex flight, there are no overhead bins or aisles or free drinks. Anyone who thinks that fuel costs are a factor in Apple's production plans is just clueless.
  • Reply 16 of 57
    It still amazes me how people think that in the USA there would be hundreds of thousands of people that would be crashing in the doors looking for employment....and....willing to produce the same amount of product in the same time frame for the same unit cost as workers in China. As much as I love this country and as much as it pains me to say this....the American workforce is lazy and think they're entitled. I know, I'm an employer and I see it everyday.
  • Reply 17 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Fuel costs make shipping products 10,000 miles away not nearly as attractive as it once was when costs were 1/10th they are today. Fuel isn't going to ever return to a low cost until alternative energy sources become cheaply accessible and that is where another battle for greed will create another recession or two.



    Sorry, but most of the components are being manufactured in Southeast Asia as well as well as overpack materials like AC adaptors, packaging, printed materials, etc. Sure, Foxconn could build factories in Texas, New York, or Ireland, but it still needs to move the parts from the suppliers to the final assembly line. A lot of the stuff goes by train and/or truck in Asia.



    There's a certain amount of accessibility to rare earth materials that can be natively found in reasonably large quantities in China. Also, warehousing expenses are dirt cheap in China.



    It's not just about fuel prices for delivery of finished goods.



    The main reason for Foxconn to create regional manufacturing centers is to spread risk, not to save fuel costs. What the Thailand floods did to the global hard drive market is an example of what happens when an industry is in one region.
  • Reply 18 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dickprinter View Post


    It still amazes me how people think that in the USA there would be hundreds of thousands of people that would be crashing in the doors looking for employment?



    What we really need are FULLY AUTOMATED FACTORIES? here.



    There's no sense in any human being performing any task that doesn't require creative, sentient thought and calling it their "job". Machines should be doing that.
  • Reply 19 of 57
    I wish the jobs were in America to but come on people, those workers are paid crap wages( probably 75 cents an hour) and work under such dangerous conditions they would make OSHA scream.

    During one of those GOP candidate debates a moderator ask that lot of looney tunes what they would do to stop a growing a China. LOL! China is America's sugar daddy.
  • Reply 20 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    What we really need are FULLY AUTOMATED FACTORIES? here.



    There's no sense in any human being performing any task that doesn't require creative, sentient thought and calling it their "job". Machines should be doing that.



    You can't tell me that machines are capable of assembling an iPhone, iPod, iPad, MacBook or iMac. There's just no way.
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