Apple and Foxconn are considering the creation of production in the US
The American company Apple and the Chinese Foxconn are considering the possibility of creating an automated production of displays for the iPhone in the United States, the Nikkei report said . The project cost is estimated at $ 7 billion.
Consideration of the possibility of producing an iPhone at home began in November 2016. Then Apple began to conduct the first research on the partial transfer of the existing production of their smartphones to the United States. At the same time, the Chinese market still remains a priority for the company: Apple receives the greatest profit from the sale of its devices (19% of global sales) in China.
The Chinese company Foxconn produces more than 100 million Apple smartphones annually. The Foxconn leadership also notes that it has not yet encountered pressure from the Chinese authorities because of plans to expand its presence in the United States.
The founder and chairman of the board of directors of Foxconn, Terry Gow, is described as a person who puts his own business at the center. At the same time, he does not shy away from practicing the bleeding of entire regions of China among themselves in order to obtain favorable conditions and always strives to implement the most successful scenario.
At the same time, Gou states that "Foxconn will remain in China."
In parallel with the rhetoric regarding the transfer of production of the iPhone in the US, Foxconn concluded a number of deals to expand production in China. So, in Zhengzhou together with Sharp it is planned to create a joint venture for the production of LED panels, and together with the SoftBank Group (the founders of ARM Holdings) to build a center for the development of chips in Shenzhen.
The motivation of Apple in this matter is also ambiguous. In many respects, talk about the transfer of production to the territory of the United States may be associated with the pre-election rhetoric of the new US President. Donald Trump called on the Cupertino company to move production back home, even to the detriment of the company's final cost (or profit).
In 2015, Tim Cook answered the question about the reality of the creation of components and the assembly of the iPhone in the United States. Then Apple CEO noted that, unlike China, in the United States there is not enough skilled labor to operate such industries.