Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is partnering with US medical device company Medtronic PLC to produce ventilators to assist in the fight against COVID-19, the company said yesterday.
Medtronic chief executive officer Omar Ishrak in an interview with CNBC on Monday said that his company is teaming up with Hon Hai — better known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) — to make ventilators at Hon Hai’s plant in Wisconsin to support treatment for the sickest COVID-19 patients.
Hon Hai’s collaboration with Medtronic would cover the design and development of the devices, while production would start in four to six weeks, Ishrak said, without specifying manufacturing capacity.
The news was confirmed by Hon Hai, which said that medical care and technology specialists from the two companies are working closely in the hopes of speeding up mass production of the ventilators.
Hon Hai founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) is facilitating cooperation between the companies, the firm added.
Hon Hai confirmed that in the middle of last month, it applied to manufacture masks at a factory run by its Hong-Kong listed subsidiary, FIT Hon Teng Ltd (鴻騰精密), in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城), where the company is headquartered, and that it received approval from Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration.
The company’s first mask production line was set up at the Tucheng plant early last month, a source familiar with the matter said.
The coronavirus has spread worldwide and Hon Hai expects to extend mask production from the Tucheng factory to its overseas production bases, the source added.
The company has since February been making masks in China, while its subsidiary Sharp Corp began to produce them in Japan late last month.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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