Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, plans to equalize the number of robots and the number of its workers in China within three years to lower operating expenses as labor costs rise there, the Financial Times said on Monday.
The report said the group currently employs 10,000 robots on the production lines in China and about 1 million workers.
Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, produces iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc, as well as other high-tech gadgets for multinationals such as Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and Sony Corp. It is the largest employer in China.
Foxconn chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) has already come up with an automation plan to boost the number of robots, the paper said.
Foxconn plans to use 300,000 robots next year, and the number will increase to 1 million by the end of 2013, Gou said at an event at the Shenzhen production base last week, according to people at the event, the paper said.
The newspaper said Foxconn had declined to confirm Gou’s numbers, but said it wanted its employees to move beyond basic manufacturing work.
Foxconn has been working on relocating its production facilities from Shenzhen to inland cities, such as Zhengzhou in Henan Province and Chengdu in Sichuan, where labor costs are lower.
In the Financial Times report, Dong Tao (陶冬), the chief regional economist at Credit Suisse, said wages for migrant workers in China, the backbone of Foxconn’s workforce, rose 30 percent to 40 percent last year and are expected to rise an additional 20 percent to 30 percent per year at least until 2013.
Alvin Kwock (郭彥麟), head of hardware technology research at JPMorgan, was quoted as saying Foxconn’s robotics plan was part of the automation drive among China-based manufacturers. He said it indicated the cost of labor in China was no longer lower than the cost of capital.
Kwok was quoted as saying Foxconn was a latecomer to automation, while analysts believe Guo’s automation plans were likely to be an key aspect of the inland expansion strategy.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last