Foxconn denies speculation about exiting mainland China amid uncertainty from trade war
- A senior Foxconn executive said last week that the company could make all US-bound iPhones for Apple outside China if necessary
- The electronics manufacturing giant makes smartphones for Apple and major Chinese brands such as Huawei, whose overseas sales have declined
Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, has denied speculation that it plans to withdraw from the Chinese mainland, where the Taiwanese company has more than 1 million employees, as the trade row between the US and China escalates.
“The rumours about Foxconn quitting mainland China are not true,” said the company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, in a post on its official WeChat account on Monday.
The firm said that operations at all of its facilities across the mainland were orderly and that there were no plans for divestment.
Its denial via Chinese social media has come after Liu Young, Foxconn board nominee and chief of its semiconductor division, told an investor briefing in Taipei last week that the company could fully support Apple if it needs to adjust its production in case the US-China trade dispute intensifies and becomes more unpredictable.
Liu said Foxconn had enough capacity to make all iPhones bound for the US outside China if necessary, according to a Bloomberg report. Apple has not given Foxconn instructions to move production out of China, the report said.