Foxconn secures new manufacturing site in Vietnam post China turmoil

HONG KONG: Apples biggest supplier Foxconn has secured a new site in Vietnam, as the Taiwanese giant shifts production away from China after facing major supply-chain disruptions late last year after the lifting of zero-COVID policy.

According to a media report, Taiwan-based Foxconn (earlier known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) has signed a lease with Saigon-Bac Giang Industrial Park Corp to occupy a plot of 45 hectares for around $62.5 million to meet “operational needs and expand production capacity”.

In an exchange filing, the Taiwanese giant said the lease will run through February 2057.

“Foxconn signed a $300 million agreement with a Vietnamese developer last August to build a new factory in Bac Giang, where it already produces iPads and AirPods,” according to the report.

Foxconn is also planning to increase its workforce at its plant in India over the next two years. The company announced a $500 million investment in its Indian subsidiary in December last year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the company’s quarterly earnings call earlier this month, said that the COVID-19 challenges “significantly impacted the supply of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max and lasted through most of December”.

Meanwhile, the key Apple supplier reported strong revenue for January that surged 48.2 per cent (year-on-year), after facing significant COVID-related disruptions in October and November in 2022. “With operations returning to normal and product shipments increasing at the Zhengzhou campus, revenue in January delivered strong double-digit growth both on MoM and YoY basis,” said Foxconn.

The company reported better components supply and strong customers’ pull-in. Smart consumer electronics products and computing products showed strong double-digit growth.

Foxconn’s biggest iPhone manufacturing facility in China, hit hard by Covid-related disruptions, gradually recovered and production reached about 90 per cent of maximum capacity in early January.

Foxconn Technology Group’s facility in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is the world’s largest iPhone factory, which saw major disruptions in the last three months of 2022 caused by the pandemic controls.

In a New Year’s message, Foxconn chairman-CEO Young Liu had said the Taipei-based company may see a more difficult and challenging path ahead.