Foxconn seeks to expand North American manufacturing operations
On the same day we started hearing about Apple's plans to manufacture an undisclosed Mac product in the United States, a Bloomberg report indicates that Apple's largest manufacturing partner, China's Foxconn, is looking to increase its presence in North America. Coincidence? Neither company is divulging specifics of their plans, but the timing is interesting.
Foxconn, which has come under fire for working conditions at its Chinese factories multiple times in recent years, already operates some manufacturing facilities in the US, in California and Texas. These locations assemble hardware such as servers that are already partially built. According to a spokesperson for the company, Foxconn intends to take advantage of "high-value engineering talent" in the US since it cannot hope to build the same sort of low-cost labor force in the US that it has in China. It will, however, send its US workers to train there on its manufacturing processes before they go to work stateside.
You'll recall that Apple has started assembling some of its new iMac computers in the US, but exact details of where this work is taking place have yet to be divulged.
