Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, denied reports it will cut staff at its Hong Kong-listed unit.
“There’s no such thing,” said Edmund Ding (丁祈安), spokesman for Taipei-based Hon Hai.
The group had not cut employees and contract staffing was in line with normal seasonal trends, he said.
Hon Hai’s Hong Kong-traded unit Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股) will cut 5,000 staff, Taipei-based Apple Daily said yesterday. Parent Hon Hai has frozen hiring and scaled back overtime work in its China-based factories, the National Business Daily said on Tuesday, citing unidentified employees.
Vincent Tong (童文欣), spokesman for Foxconn International, didn’t return calls or e-mails today seeking comment.
“The current market situation is a tsunami, which started from developed countries and spread to developing countries,” Ding said. “It’s gone from the financial world to the manufacturing world.”
Hon Hai and its affiliates were reallocating staff to different divisions and sharing resources across business groups to save costs, Ding said, without providing details. He denied the group had stopped hiring.
Hon Hai, which makes iPhones for Apple Inc and games machines for Sony Corp, on Oct. 31 posted its second consecutive decline in quarterly profit after income from its affiliates declined.
The company is expected to post a 32 percent decline in earnings this quarter to NT$18 billion (US$541 million) from NT$26.6 billion a year earlier, according to the median of five analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
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