Apple supplier Foxconn invests £5bn in India
Electronics maker Foxconn is investing $5bn in a new factory in India, as the Apple supplier seeks to mitigate rising wage costs in China.
Foxconn has announced the new manufacturing facility will be in the western state of Maharashtra, and the $5bn investment over the next five years marks one of India’s largest foreign-investment deals ever.
This is just the beginning, though, according to the company, the world’s largest electronics manufacturers and a key supplier to Apple. Foxconn’s long-term plan is to move more of its operations away from its current centre in China, as wages in the country continue to rise.
To mitigate this, the company recently announced plans for up to a dozen new manufacturing facilities in India by 2020, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi hopes other companies will follow suit, to bolster India’s “Make in India” campaign aimed at increasing Indian manufacturing.
Foxconn employs up to 1.3m people, but the Apple supplier is plagued by a controversial history of poor working conditions causing several suicides. 14 Foxconn employees killed themselves in 2010 alone, and three years ago, 150 employees threatened to leap from a factory roof in protest against the labour conditions.