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Foxconn to expand North American operations as demand for 'Made in U.S.A.' products rises

Demand for products made in the U.S. is pushing Taiwanese component manufacturer Foxconn to expand its North American operations.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

Hot on the heels of the announcement by Apple chief executive Tim Cook that Apple is to manufacture some Macs in the U.S. comes the news that Taiwanese design manufacturer Foxconn is to expand its North American operations.

"We are looking at doing more manufacturing in the U.S. because, in general, customers want more to be done there," said Foxconn spokesperson Louis Woo in an interview with Bloomberg.

No further information was given as to who the customers prompting the expansion are, but among those who rely on Foxconn are big names such as Apple and HP.

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"Supply chain is one of the big challenges for U.S. expansion," Woo said. "In addition, any manufacturing we take back to the U.S. needs to leverage high-value engineering talent there in comparison to the low-cost labor of China."

Foxconn currently has factories in California and Texas involved in the assembly of products such as servers.

In an interview that is scheduled to be broadcast later today on "Rock Center" on NBC, Cook unveiled company plans to move some Mac manufacturing to the U.S. next year at a cost of some $100 million.

"I don't think we have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job," Cook said. "But I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs."

"When you back up and look at Apple's effect on job creation in the United States, we estimate that we've created more than 600,000 jobs now," he added.

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Apple doesn't make a secret about where its products are made. On the back of many Apple products are the words "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." The company has, however, been criticized for manufacturing products abroad, and the company hasn't manufactured a single product in the U.S. since the 1990s.

Image source: iFixit.

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