Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly manufacturing Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp’s Bravia line of televisions at a plant near Chenai, India.
Sony’s managing director for India, Kenichiro Hibi, was quoted by the Hong Kong-based Economic Times as saying that the Taiwanese manufacturer, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), has inked an agreement with Sony to produce two 43-inch models at a plant of Competition Team Technology, an Indian subsidiary of Hon Hai.
This marks the return of Sony to manufacturing in India after it closed its plant in the country in 2004.
It is also the first time that Hon Hai is producing TVs in the country, according to people who are familiar with the matter.
India is the fourth-largest market for Sony, after the US, China and Japan, Hibi said, adding that the production from the plant will be for the Indian market, although Sony may later export the TVs from India.
Hon Hai declined comment, saying: “Hon Hai is not to admit or deny this media report.”
Hon Hai has made several moves in India this year in a bid to fortify its position in the country’s manufacturing sector after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his “Make in India” policy last year.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) last month told Indian media outlets that the company plans to set up 10 to 12 manufacturing plants in the country by 2020, creating 1 million jobs.
Hon Hai, which assembles Xiaomi Inc’s (小米) handsets, reportedly started to ship the Chinese company’s handsets from its plant in India this month.
The Taiwanese firm is also reportedly in talks with Apple Inc and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) to assemble their smartphone products in India, reports said.
In addition, Hon Hai is collaborating with Japan’s Softbank Corp to invest US$20 billion in a solar power venture in India, and has teamed up Softbank and China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to invest US$500 million in India’s second-largest online retail platform, Snapdeal, according to reports.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”