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China Daily reports (via Electronista) that Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn is investing $1.1 billion to nearly double the size of a recently-opened iPhone manufacturing facility in Zhengzhou, China, banking on continued strong growth of iPhone sales.
The base will be centered on the Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou, provincial capital of Henan, increasing its current production lines to 95, said the Henan provincial development and reform commission during a conference.
The expansion plan, costing 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), is expected to bring $20 billion in sales revenue in 2012, the commission said.
The facility opened earlier this year and is already employing 130,000 workers and producing 200,000 iPhones per day. If the facility were running at full capacity seven days a week, it would be capable of producing 18 million iPhones per quarter.
A Bloomberg report from last week indicated that the city of Zhengzhou is working to help Foxconn add 100,000 workers to the facility this year, and a production boost in line with that workforce increase could see the factory yielding over 350,000 iPhones per day, or nearly 32 million per quarter.
Top Rated Comments
It's not just Apple. It's not uncommon for electronics to be outsourced for cheap labor. It keeps production costs down and in turn, makes it more affordable for customers. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but should they decide to keep the production in-house, prices will likely skyrocket.
I hope some of that $20 billion finds it's way to the workers.
The people are the robots in this case, but there are only minutes of hand labor in a phone. The labor issue is a red herring, despite the postings of the surrogates that magically appear every time the issue comes up.
The savings come from tax dodging, no pesky laws about dumping stuff in the river, no problems with dealing with any human issues. Just give them an order and in time containers full of iPhones appear.