Foxconn To Double Jobs, Investment In India In Next 12 Months

Foxconn has again indicated its intentions to expand in India, in another setback for Chinese authorities in Beijing.

Reuters reported that Foxconn aims to double its workforce and investment in India by next year, a company executive posted online on Sunday.

It comes after Foxconn last month began manufacturing the Apple iPhone 15 in India, just weeks ahead of its worldwide launch on 12 September.

India expansion

According to the Reuters report, Foxconn has rapidly expanded its presence in India by investing in manufacturing facilities in the south of the country as the company seeks to move away from China.

V Lee, Foxconn’s representative in India, used a LinkedIn post to mark Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 73rd birthday.

In the post, he said “under your leadership, Foxconn has grown smoothly and rapidly in India. We will work even harder to present you with a greater birthday gift next year, aiming for another doubling of employment, FDI, and business size in India.”

FDI stands for foreign direct investment.

Foxconn already has an iPhone factory in the state of Tamil Nadu, which employs 40,000 people.

In August, the state of Karnataka said Foxconn will invest $600 million for two projects in the state to make casing components for iPhones and chip-making equipment.

And Foxconn’s Chairman Liu Young-way recently said in an earnings report last month that he sees a lot of potential in India, adding: “several billion dollars in investment is only a beginning.”

Last September Apple had begun manufacturing its iPhone 14 in India for the first time.

Established presence

Foxconn is a significant investor in India and has more than 30 factories in India, including 20 dormitories that house tens of thousands of workers.

In March this year Foxconn said it will build a new 300-acre facility in Bengaluru, India to manufacture ‘electronics’, thought to be iPhone parts.

Foxconn actually began its Indian operations in 2006.

Indeed Foxconn’s India operations account for about $10 billion – or just under 5 percent – of the company’s annual turnover, which stood at $6.627 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($207 billion) last year.

China move

Prior to that in December 2022, Foxconn said it may move as much as 30 percent of its manufacturing capacity out of China to India, Vietnam and Brazil as it and other electronics manufacturers seek to diversify and limit supply chain disruption caused by geopolitical tensions and public health challenges.

Foxconn reportedly began the multiyear diversification effort before the Covid-19 pandemic, with India emerging as an attractive manufacturing base due to its large population and high birth rate.

Vietnam meanwhile offers lower labour costs than China, and now has 21 Apple suppliers operating in the country, although it can’t yet produce the iPhone.