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Foxconn plans 2,000 retail stores in central China: report

Foxconn shuts India plant after 250 workers hospitalised
Taiwan's troubled IT giant Foxconn has suspended operations at a factory in India after 250 workers were hospitalised in an incident thought to be linked to spraying of pesticide. Work at the facility in Chennai, southern India, was halted on Monday and is expected to resume in about a week, Foxconn said in a statement late Monday. It said the incident took place on Friday last week and that some workers had "experienced sensations of giddiness and nausea". While the problem was being investigated, it "may have been caused by the routine spraying of pesticide at the production facility," Foxconn said. The company said 250 workers -- about half the workforce -- had been hospitalised, however all but 28 had been released after treatment, with the remainder remaining under observation in hospital. It comes as Foxconn, whose parent Hon Hai is a major supplier for Apple and other electronics giants, has been hit by a series of suicides at production facilities in China that have damaged the company's reputation. "Following this incident, and as a precautionary measure, the company suspended operations at that production facility from July 26 to allow the facility to be checked and cleared by the relevant local authorities," Foxconn said. A total of 11 Chinese employees have committed suicide this year at Foxconn plants by jumping from buildings, including 10 in the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen. Another worker at a Foxconn affiliate died last week after falling from a dormitory. The company has said none of the deaths were directly work-related and that it has been cleared by Chinese authorities of any wrongdoing. Foxconn announced last month it would hike monthly salaries for assembly line workers in Shenzhen by nearly 70 percent to 2,000 yuan (295 dollars) from October 1 to help stem the problems.
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) July 27, 2010
Taiwanese IT giant Foxconn plans to open 2,000 stores in central China, state media reported Tuesday, as the troubled firm moves operations to inland provinces where labour costs are lower.

Foxconn, which has been accused of mistreating Chinese workers following a spate of suicides at its factory in the south, also has registered to build two plants in the same central province of Henan, Xinhua news agency said.

Total investment in the two factories in the provincial capital Zhengzhou, which will make mobile phones and telecoms equipment, will be 740 million dollars, Xinhua said earlier, citing a government and a company official.

The factories will not be bigger than the company's plants in Shenzhen, on the border with Hong Kong, where more than 400,000 workers are employed.

"Foxconn has been doing well in Shenzhen and will never move out," Foxconn official Chen Hongfang was quoted as saying.

The company, which counts Apple and Panasonic among its clients, has been in talks with authorities in Henan about opening 2,000 electronic and home appliance stores across the province as it seeks to diversify its business, Xinhua said, citing a local official.

Foxconn is expected to finish registering some of the stores before October, the report said.

The world's biggest electronics contractor also plans to invest in another two factories in the southwestern city of Chengdu and move some manufacturing to northern Tianjin, according to earlier reports.

Foxconn's move away from its long-time manufacturing hub in Shenzhen comes after it hiked salaries for assembly line workers by about 70 percent after 11 employees apparently committed suicide this year, including 10 in Shenzhen.

Labour rights activists have blamed the suicides on tough working conditions at Foxconn, prompting the head of the company last week to hit out at critics and threaten to review his company's investment plans in Taiwan.



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Siemens Korea contract will save U.S. jobs
Washington (UPI) Jul 27, 2010
A Siemens Energy, Inc. sale of generators to South Korea is a timely rescue package for jobs at several U.S. manufacturing units, officials said. Siemens Energy, Inc. announced it has won a gas and steam turbine-generator sale to South Korea for a plant expansion, backed by a $134.2 million long-term loan guarantee from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The sale will open opportunitie ... read more







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