Foxconn to make India a key global manufacturing hub

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronic contract manufacturer which makes iPhone, iPad, and other Apple products would begin to manufacture mobile phones from its second India factory in Navi Mumbai from August.

The iPhone maker will initially make mobile phones at a 2 lakh square feet facility near Mumbai and later laptops and computers, according to Apurva Chandra, Principal Secretary – Industries, Maharashtra government. “Foxconn has taken a rented premise in Navi Mumbai. They have taken 2 lakh square feet. They have (set up) their mobile manufacturing facility (there). And probably, as we are told, the first week of August they are going to launch mobiles from this facility,” he said.

The rented factory, however, is a temporary facility and the company is looking at 1,200 acres of land in Maharashtra for a new multi-billion dollar factory as part of its plans to make India a key global manufacturing hub for servicing markets across Africa and West Asia.

“Mobile manufacturing will begin in August then they are going to manufacture laptops and computers,” Chandra said adding a mobile assembly can be set up in 6-8 months.

In August last year, Foxconn Chairman and CEO Terry Gou spoke about investing in India across domains like manufacturing, startups, energy and e-commerce portals and was also looking at bringing supply chain companies and major technologies. He also added that Foxconn may build as many as 12 factories in India by 2020 to manufacture LED TVs, batteries, and other electronics products and that his firm has been looking at potential sites in Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Foxconn currently manufactures in Chinese factories. Plans to set up manufacturing units in India, the nation with the second-highest number of mobile phone accounts behind China, are seen as a move to mitigate rising labor costs in China and lower manufacturing cost of iPhones.

Foxconn had last year started assembling smartphones for Chinese firm Xiaomi at its facility in Sri City, an industrial park in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.