There is currently a lot of chatter about the Wisconsin / Taiwan Foxconn deal. Here’s some information on the company:
- Foxconn is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company headquartered in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan.
- Foxconn currently has 12 factories in nine Chinese cities along with factories in Asia, Brazil, Europe, and Mexico.
- The company is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer by revenue that, as of 2012, produced approximately 40 percent of all consumer electronics products sold.
- Foxconn is the largest private employer in China and one of the largest employers worldwide.
- Major customers comprise all the biggies including Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, Google, and Dell.
- In reaction to a spate of worker suicides in which 14 people died in 2010, a report from 20 Chinese universities described Foxconn factories as labor camps and detailed widespread worker abuse and illegal overtime. The company claims these issues have been resolved.
And here’s a quick summary of the deal as it currently
stands based on what I’m reading:
- The complex will be located at a 1,000-acre site in southeastern Wisconsin.
- This will be the first liquid crystal display manufacturing facility in North America and that has environmentalists a little freaked out.
- It will take four years to build and will employ up to 10,000 construction workers over those four years.
- The factory floor area will cover 20 million square feet.
- Up to 13,000 workers could eventually be employed and paid an average of $53,875 a year, plus benefits.
- Will generate estimated $181 million in state and local tax revenue annually, including $60 million in local property taxes.
- Wisconsin will kick in $3 billion in state incentives over 15 years.
- Wisconsin is not projected to break even on the incentive package for at least 25 years (that's 2042).
Sources:
