Foxconn's American plans were widely rumoured back in November when it was reported that the Chinese manufacture of Apple's iPhone and iPad, is mulling U.S. based factories and rumors suggested that it plans to set up manufacturing units in U.S. cities such as Detroit and Los Angeles. Now as Apple announces it plans of bringing the Mac production back to the United States, Foxconn comes clear on its plans as well - "We are looking at doing more manufacturing in the U.S. because, in general, customers want more to be done there," Louis Woo, a Foxconn spokesman, told Bloomberg Businessweek in a phone interview. However, he declined to comment on individual clients or other future plans of the company.
Apple's Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook had recently announced that the company will shell out more than $100 million next year on building Mac computers in the U.S.; however, it is believed that Apple will continue to rely on Foxconn, and not American companies. Noting that the Taiwanese electronic manufacture already has a few assembly and enclosure sites established in the U.S. with sizable manufacturing locations in Houston, Tex., Industry, Calif., and Indianapolis, Ind., analyst Amit Daryanani with RBC Capital Markets said Foxconn will most likely be the supplier for Apple's U.S.-based manufacturing, The Apple Insider reported. In addition, shifting its long-time manufacturing partner will be a tough task for Apple.
Talking of the challenges, Woo said, "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."
Earlier speculations had suggested that the proposed U.S. plants would focus on LCD TV production and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said the company is considering a training program for U.S.-based engineers who it would bring to Asia to take part in the processes of product design and manufacturing. Foxconn, a major electronic supplier of many leading companies including Apple, Hewlett-Packard, employs over 1.6 million workers globally and already has factories in California and Texas.
