Foxconn plans to build five Brazilian factories to produce Apple products
Apple relies on electronics assembly firm Foxconn to build iPads and iPhones in China. Now Foxconn is reportedly planning to build five new factories in Brazil to help meet the demand for Apple products. There's already one plant cranking out iPads and iPhones, and each of the new factories is expected to have about a thousand workers.
The exact locations of the new plants have not yet been decided, with officials from the Brazilian government and Foxconn planning on meeting after the Chinese New Year.
The Brazilian government wants the factories in the country: just last week, they approved tax reductions and exemptions that make it attractive for Foxconn to produce iPads in Brazil. A new "Inter-Ministerial Decree 34" provides excise tax, social contribution tax, and federal contribution tax incentives for companies investing in the research and development of keyboard less touchscreen tablets weighing less than 750 grams (the iPad 2 tops out at 613 grams).
In other Foxconn news, Chinese tech news site M.I.C. Gadget reports that thousands of Chinese citizens lined up for a chance to try for jobs at an iPhone plant in Zhengzhou. Despite recent Western press accounts painting the company -- and Apple -- as exploiting Chinese workers, there are literally tens of thousands of individuals who feel that a low-paying job in less-than-perfect working conditions is better than no job at all. The photo below shows part of the crowd waiting outside a labor agency in Zhengzhou to apply for the jobs.
