Foxconn to quadruple iPhone factory workforce in India
Foxconn is reportedly planning to greatly increase iPhone in India, quadrupling its workforce over the next two years.
Faced with a severe hit to its revenues because of China's COVID lockdown measures, Foxconn was already moving iPhone production to India. According to Reuters, however, it currently has approximately 17,000 workers in India, and it intends to raise that to 70,000 by 2024.
By comparison, Foxconn reportedly employs around 200,000 workers at its Zhengzhou plant in China. However, workers have been fleeing that factory because of alleged conditions there.
Neither Foxconn nor Apple has commented on the move to India, but Reuters claims the information comes from two anonymous Indian government officials.
Foxconn originally opened a plant in India in 2019, but it's not known whether the facility can be expanded sufficiently, or whether a new factory needs to be built.
Read on AppleInsider
Faced with a severe hit to its revenues because of China's COVID lockdown measures, Foxconn was already moving iPhone production to India. According to Reuters, however, it currently has approximately 17,000 workers in India, and it intends to raise that to 70,000 by 2024.
By comparison, Foxconn reportedly employs around 200,000 workers at its Zhengzhou plant in China. However, workers have been fleeing that factory because of alleged conditions there.
Neither Foxconn nor Apple has commented on the move to India, but Reuters claims the information comes from two anonymous Indian government officials.
Foxconn originally opened a plant in India in 2019, but it's not known whether the facility can be expanded sufficiently, or whether a new factory needs to be built.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
From a raw number of jobs standpoint both sides could have all of the tech jobs they can possibly handle even at current levels and discounting growth. It’s not even close to being a zero sum game where one side is taking away from the other, at least when you look at the global market. If you divide the market up into something like domestic versus global I suppose the US could try to control a larger percentage of its domestic market while largely sacrificing its ability to compete globally. The domestic manufacturing capacity limit puts a hard ceiling on the revenue and growth potential of domestic companies, which kind of flies in the face of capitalism.
My preferred approach would be to play both sides of the model, with domestic production at levels that ensure resiliency and availability in the face of worst-case economic and geopolitical conditions, Plan B, while global production helps to drive unbridled growth and profitability when everyone is getting along, Plan A. I’m not an economist, I’m an engineer, so I know this approach is way too simplified. But I also know from my experience in high availability systems that you always need a backup plan and system standing by and ready to step in if Plan A crashes. I don’t think the US could could come close to meeting the most minimal domestic demand, Plan B, if the global focused plan crashes and burns. As far as I know, we don’t have a Plan B. The China-to-India move is more like a Plan A-minus.
Made-in-India doesn't mean designed-in-india. Usually the way it works with textiles is that the companies give specifications of the material and the design and they get manufactured (China, Germany, Bangladesh, Vietnam and India are the leaders in textile manufacturing in that order) in these countries. So, you might want to stop buying that brand instead.
The problem in India is usually the local politicians and their agendas (maybe the bane of all democracies). Most companies need to keep "good" relations with whoever in is power, and decent relations even with the opposition local politicians so you don't get stuck in the crossfire.