Foxconn is for the second time scaling back on its plans for its Wisconsin LCD facility. Originally touted as a $10B TV display factory expected to create up to 13,000 jobs, the company subsequently said it was cutting costs by instead aiming to make smaller displays.
Today, however, Foxconn CEO’s special assistant Louis Woo has said that it is now ‘not building a factory’ at all, but rather something far more modest in scope …
Woo revealed the change in plan in an interview with Reuters.
Foxconn is now dramatically scaling back the number of expected jobs.
Rather than a focus on LCD manufacturing, Foxconn wants to create a “technology hub” in Wisconsin that would largely consist of research facilities along with packaging and assembly operations […]
“In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory. You can’t use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment,” Woo said.
The reason for the change of heart, says Woo, is the cost of manufacturing in the US.
Instead, it was likely to source its TV displays from China, Japan or Taiwan.
“In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.,” he said in an interview. “We can’t compete.”
Wisconsin officials had already come under fire for agreeing $3B in subsidies at a cost of at least $231,000 per job. It was later revealed that the state would be adding a further $1B in sweeteners. If the same $4B subsidies were to remain in place for 1,000 jobs, that would make the cost more than $4M per job.
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