One of the global telecommunications industry’s highest-profile manufacturers is reportedly on the verge of increasing its presence in Brazil with an investment of billions of dollars.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has reported stated that Foxconn - the Taiwanese manufacturer best known for producing components for Apple’s iPhone – could spend up to US$12 billion on an expansion programme in the South American nation across the next five years. If this figure is accurate, it would be the firm’s largest ever foreign investment.
A Foxconn spokesman confirmed that while details have not been finalised, the investment was under “serious consideration”. The firm’s key manufacturing plant is located in Shenzhen, and across China it has around 1 million employees – its plans for international expansion have been precipitated by escalating wages.
The firm’s initial expansion would like focus on the manufacturing base that it already operates in Brazil, but through the establishment of other such facilities, Foxconn could be offering up to 100,000 jobs.
Manufacturing is already a key industry in Brazil – Foxconn’s existing base in Brazil builds products for Hewlett Packard, while Motorola and LG also operate manufacturing plants in the country, which produce devices such as tablet computers.
