Foxconn to Invest $12 Billion in Brazil With iPad Production to Begin by November?

[Piggie]

I have been told a number of times that in reality wages do not make any significant different to actual product cost.

It's simple to understand really.

If you have 1 guy who is standing, running a high tech machine that's turning out say 100 items per hour and those items are worth $20 each.

So that's $2000 per hour this unit (man and machine) are creating.

If you pay the guy $1 for this hour, or $20 for this hour. Yes, one it being paid 20 times as much as the other. But in reality, this cost it very little when put against the value of the items that are being created during this time period.

Of course, in the board room, it will look like a lot more is being spent on your wages bill, but we are probably only looking at a few dollars added to any expensive finished item in reality.

 

[arksecktor]

Error

Just saying, our minister name is Aloísio MercadAnte, with an A instead of E

 

[JohnnyQuest]

Sounds good. I NEED an iPad 3 when it comes out. iPad 2 is old news

 

[Kaibelf]

If they build it from scratch, they could probably design the place with working conditions that don't make people as suicidal.

Yawn. You are bringing up that ludicrous story again? These workers *live* in the city/facility of Foxconn, so perhaps rather than complain about the suicides of a handful of people among such a massive group, you should focus on the MUCH HIGHER rate of suicide in American cities of comparable size. Otherwise, give it a rest.

 

[And1ss]

Why? Samsung has manufactured their products in Korea. Their employees get more pay and benefits than average Americans. iPhone could be $615 vs $599 but I can pay a little more for iPhone assembled In USA.

Samsung may manufacture their products in Korea, but that doesn't mean every component for a phone, for example, is built in Korea. Korea may be the place for the phone to be put together, but its LCD, battery, etc might be built elsewhere and imported into Korea. For Korea (and I'm not entirely sure), the country might have laxed policies on imports and whatnot making final production cheaper than it needs to be, making the product cheaper to sell, and higher margins of profit --> pay better wages, etc.

For America, that may not be the case. Too many laws and regulations for everything made by our self-interested Congress members.

Oh, I hope everything you buy is not made abroad. Please, only buy the more expensive product to ensure you aren't buying a non-made U.S product (including its components) =).

 

[MagnumOP]

Parabens Brasil! Um pais forte.

Vai continuar a crescer com certeza!

 

[And1ss]

Don't worry.

If the Chinese economy keeps growing at the same rate over the next decade they will be setting up manufacturing plants in the USA to take advantage of the cheap American labour.

Doubt it, American labor unions will never allow that. haha. Plus, China won't have problems finding labor in the country.

 

[Kaibelf]

Never gonna happen. Pretty much all politicians in the United States are bought and owned by corporate interest groups. And they're not out to help the average guy live a decent life. They're not gonna stop until they've destroyed the labour unions completely so they can bring our wages down even more. The minimum wage is already a joke but don't worry man, the day we're making just as much as a bangladeshi guy they'll be happy. That way they don't have to move factories to the far east, They can just build them right here in the massive suburban poverty stricken areas of the united states. Then We'll be making iPhones at sh.it wages for the rich easterners! Yeehow! America Number 1?!.......... No?

It's a sad world. If every country could just agree on laws that would secure a decent wage for everyone this sh.it wouldn't be going on.

I hate to break it to you, but if the most you can do with your life after being given a free education and a ton of opportunities is to stand there and weld metal or screw parts together, and if THAT is the absolute pinnacle of what you want to contribute to society, then perhaps "a decent life" isn't what you deserve. Until you can convince me that some guy who attaches windows to a car should make 3x the salary of a schoolteacher, social worker, drug counselor, or farmer AND get a pension which pays them 6 figures for life, I will never EVER buy that argument.

 

[mcmlxix]

I’ve always wondered about a ROC company with manufacturing in the PRC, especially since the PRC seems to want to muscle the ROC out of existence.

Regarding Brazil, some people complained about Obama being in South America when things started hitting the fan in Libya, but the US has mostly overlooked South America for too long, and South America is more in our long-term economic interest than Libya.

In any case it makes a lot of sense to diversify manufacturing locations. My company after all has its PROD and BCP centers at least a thousand miles from each other. The Sendai earthquake has reawakened the need for that kind of thinking.

 

[anomie]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8G4)

Hahaha made my day.

Truth is: they do not build anything in the US because US-workers are lazy!
Nobody in the Rest of the world would buy their profucts

 

[And1ss]

I’ve always wondered about a ROC company with manufacturing in the PRC, especially since the PRC seems to want to muscle the ROC out of existence.

Politically on the surface, that may be the case, but economically, China and Taiwan are closely linked, so inking ROC out of existence will have huge repercussions for China and its businesses.

 

[NYC Russ]

If Apple manufactured their products in the US, the iPhone would probably cost $999 with a 2-year contract and the iPad would probably cost $1599 for the 16GB model.

When you have to pay someone $12 an hour to work an assembly line and pay for benefits and payroll taxes, that raises costs a lot to a country where you can pay 75 cents per hour and benefits like health insurance cost $5 a month rather than $500.

A 25-page document isn't necessary and the law would be dumb. All that it takes is for someone to take a basic economics course.

Americans who complain about jobs leaving overseas need to realize that when they go shopping they need to put their money where their mouth is. Everyone pays lip service to "made in the usa" but when they look at the price tags in the store they buy made in china!

The thing to watch here is if the quality improves when production is done in Brazil. If the production quality is the same or better, that's good news for consumers.

Electronics manufacturers are not in China for cheap labor. The manufacturing process is so automated that there is very labor involved. They manufacture in China because of currency exchange rates, and because of lax environmental laws.

 

[reynavictor]

This is long overdue for Foxconn. What if a natural disaster happened (heaven forbid) in Shenzhen?

 

[anomie]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8G4)

Hahaha made my day.

Truth is: they do not build anything in the US because US-workers are lazy!
Nobody in the Rest of the world would buy their profucts

 

[Thunderhawks]

Obviously companies build outside of the U.S. because it doesn't make financial sense to do so. U.S. labor is expensive in comparison to developing nations. Why is that so hard to understand?

Also if you look at the non-U.S. companies that have factories in the U.S. they are all in "right to work" states, so dealing with unions might be a factor too.

Same discussion all the time.

People that suggest to build plants in the US aren't doing their homework.

Made in USA doesn't mean the quality is better or worse, neither does it mean that Americans would be getting jobs because of it.
Some percentage, but not all!

Quality depends on the manufacturers controls.
Mercedes, Toyota etc. are all building quality products in the US.

There are not even enough workers with low assembly qualifications, so for a plant of that size the jobs would mostly go to immigrants, NOT Americans.

Then there is money a resource that is like a rare element gas. The slightest sign of trouble and it disappears and goes where there is no trouble.

Brazil will make no trouble, neither do other countries.

The government here is too fragmented in it's opinions to unite and pass laws that make production in the US worthwhile.

For that matter none of them have economic backgrounds and just preside over status quo, Republican or Liberal.

About 95% of all the tax money coming in is spent before it even hits and then some.

As the president's friend (an accountant) said in the movie DAVE:

If I would keep my books like they (the government) do , they'd throw me in jail.

It's an international world, intertwined by money.

So, enough with this buy American or MADE IN USA stuff. It's all about money and that will be made wherever it's FREE from too many taxes, restrictions and regulations.

 

[NYC Russ]

Don't worry.

If the Chinese economy keeps growing at the same rate over the next decade they will be setting up manufacturing plants in the USA to take advantage of the cheap American labour.

Haier, a Chinese company, currently manufactures appliances in South Carolina. Labor costs are not that relevant in modern manufacturing because of the level of automation.

 

[LondonCentral]

If Apple had produced everything within US borders, they wouldn't be as big as they are now. They wouldn't have experienced the same level of global growth, they wouldn't have had the funds to plough back into product research, design, development and manufacturing. And they sure wouldn't be as popular. As right now, guys, we non-Americanos don't see Apple as a solely American company. They're a global brand with a global, all inclusive vision at the core of each of their products. If you put the American flag on every Apple product, you'll lose customers.
I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. The reason I know I'm right is Apple have far, far more gifted individuals on their finance and business team than moi. And they've chosen NOT to mass manufacture in the US. So, in a way, I've already won this argument. Whippey!

Anyway, enough tom foolery. I'm glad Brazil are receiving such a substantial investment. Great for South American markets and for Apple. India next in 5 years I'd imagine.

 

[Gregintosh]

Doubt it, American labor unions will never allow that. haha. Plus, China won't have problems finding labor in the country.

YEP!

Electronics manufacturers are not in China for cheap labor. The manufacturing process is so automated that there is very labor involved. They manufacture in China because of currency exchange rates, and because of lax environmental laws.

Really? So I guess the 920,000 people working at FoxConn are just standing around goofing off?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

FoxConn has a net income of about 2.2 billion. Their gross revenues are about $59 billion. If each worker cost them just an extra $2,500 per year ($210 per month) they would be out of business and have to shut their doors.

And everyone here knows damn well that Chinese workers get paid much less than US workers, in other words doing FoxConn in a country with higher labor costs would mean that everything would cost a CRAP LOAD more money or it wouldn't get built to begin with.

----

As someone pointed out, Samsung may assemble SOME things in korea but individual components are often build elsewhere. Samsung also does a lot of Chinese manufacturing too. In fact, out of the Samsung devices I own they are all MADE IN CHINA too.

 

[FriarNurgle]

And we wonder why this country is broke.

Flat tax across the board. I love Apple, but when a company can spend billions to open a plant in another country just to skirt taxes, there is a problem.

 

[lkrupp]

If they build it from scratch, they could probably design the place with working conditions that don't make people as suicidal.

Get off your holier-than-thou hobby horse. Your attempt at social comment is ludicrous and stupid. If you think so badly of Apple and its suppliers then sell your Apple products (if you even own any) and try to find something not made in the exact same factories by Foxconn.

 

[NYC Russ]

YEP!




Really? So I guess the 920,000 people working at FoxConn are just standing around goofing off?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

FoxConn has a net income of about 2.2 billion. Their gross revenues are about $59 billion. If each worker cost them just an extra $2,500 per year ($210 per month) they would be out of business and have to shut their doors.

And everyone here knows damn well that Chinese workers get paid much less than US workers, in other words doing FoxConn in a country with higher labor costs would mean that everything would cost a CRAP LOAD more money or it wouldn't get built to begin with.

Uh, yes really. I deal with manufacturers professionally. Unless something is labor intensive and low value added (like clothing,) the only reason to manufacture in China is for the currency exchange rates and lax environmental laws.

Why do you think Haier, a Chinese company, is profitably manufacturing in South Carolina?

 

[Gregintosh]

Uh, yes really. I deal with manufacturers professionally. Unless something is labor intensive and low value added (like clothing,) the only reason to manufacture in China is for the currency exchange rates and lax environmental laws.

Why do you think Haier, a Chinese company, is profitably manufacturing in South Carolina?

So explain the 920,000 workers FoxConn employs.

Clearly, something in manufacturing gadgets and electronics, which is FoxConn's primary business, requires a lot of labor or else they wouldn't be employing close to a million people!

 

[kavika411]

Sounds good. I NEED an iPad 3 when it comes out. iPad 2 is old news

I'm still scoping for a cracked iPad 1 on craigslist. Maybe I should just get an abacus.

 

[nonameowns]

hmm i wonder when the day will come that universal currency will show up


hello mass effect gimme some billion credits kthx

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Manufacturing build wealth, generate revenue and helps a nation defend itself in time of war, we have shipped most of that overseas. So what happens when we have to go to war on a world scale? The U.S has been protecting Taiwan for several years and what have the done for the U.S? Nothing!