Hon Hai looks to tap US market with Arizona plant
Hon Hai Precision Industry, the major maker of Apple products, said it was considering building a plant in Arizona to make large panels and large-panel televisions to tap the massive market in the United States.
Hon Hai Precision Industry, the major maker of Apple products, said it was considering building a plant in Arizona to make large panels and large-panel televisions to tap the massive market in the United States.
The world's largest electronics assembler, Hon Hai is considering the plan as it aims to integrate its current operations in North America. Among them are television and modules manufacturing facilities in Mexico with 12,000 workers.
"Arizona has offered us very good commercial conditions," Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou Tai-ming said following a meeting with Arizona governor Jan Brewer. "The US market is huge."
Brewer said earlier this month that Apple would open a manufacturing facility in the American state, in part of a push to boost US jobs.
But Gou denied his company's move had anything to do with Apple's investment plan. "These are two separate things," he said. "I only learned about it after reading newspapers."
Once the plan was finalised, Hon Hai would begin the investment "as soon as possible", Gou said, without elaborating on the size or timetable.
The company would set up two US headquarters, one in Arizona and the other in Boston, he added.
Hon Hai is diversifying from its lower-margin contract manufacturing business and trying to move up the value chain.
It said recently that it would turn new software development centres in Taiwan into a data and cloud power base to focus on content creation, after winning 4G licences.
