rooster59 Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Foxconn vows to build Wisconsin plant after talk with Trump FILE PHOTO - Heavy machinery is seen before the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump as he participates in the Foxconn Technology Group groundbreaking ceremony for its LCD manufacturing campus, in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, U.S., June 28, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Hauck WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Foxconn Technology said on Friday it will build a factory in Wisconsin after the company's chairman spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump, following a Reuters report earlier this week that the Taiwanese company was reconsidering its plans. Reuters reported that Foxconn was reconsidering making liquid crystal display panels at a planned $10 billion Wisconsin campus and intended to hire mostly engineers and researchers there. But after conversations between Trump and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, the company said it would move "forward with our planned construction of a Gen 6 fab facility," which is a type of plant that produces displays. The 20-million-square-foot campus marked the largest investment for a brand new location by a foreign-based company in U.S. history when it was announced at a White House ceremony in 2017. It was praised by Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing. The apparent reversal was seized upon by Democrats in Congress this week. Trump tweeted on Friday: "Great news on Foxconn in Wisconsin after my conversation with Terry Gou!" Heavily criticized in some quarters, the Foxconn project was championed by Wisconsin's then governor, Scott Walker, a Republican who helped secure around $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives before leaving office. Critics called the deal a corporate giveaway that would never result in the promised manufacturing jobs and said it posed serious environmental risks. Foxconn initially planned to manufacture advanced large-screen displays for TVs and other consumer and professional products at the facility, which is under construction. It later said it would build smaller Generation 6 LCD screens instead. In comments published on Wednesday, Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn's Gou, told Reuters those plans might be scaled back or even shelved, citing the steep cost of making advanced TV screens in the United States, where labor expenses are comparatively high. After the Reuters report, Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple Inc, issued a statement confirming the global market environment that existed when the project was first announced had changed and “necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects, including Wisconsin." By Friday the company shifted again. The "campus will serve both as an advanced manufacturing facility as well as a hub of high technology innovation for the region," Foxconn said in a statement. The statement did not reiterate its commitment to create 13,000 jobs as it did on Wednesday. Woo spoke with Wisconsin's new Democratic governor, Tony Evers, a past critic of the deal, on Friday, Evers told reporters. The governor's office said on Wednesday Evers' team had been "surprised" by Woo's comments on changing plans. “From what I heard today... it looks like they’re going to focus on the generation 6 technology," Evers said. “They made commitments and we’re going to make sure they live up to them.” -- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boon Mee Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Good move, Donald. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keemapoot Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Foxconn is smart enough to wait to see if Trump will last this term or get re-elected for a 2nd term before putting any real money into this. They will likely do this in phased plans, with R&D or T&D work first, which would be a tiny fraction of the stated investment while at the same time showing Trump large future plans, etc.. Trump supporters have no reason to celebrate. Foxconn is much smarter than Trump. They are just playing him to survive his reign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolboy Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Boon Mee said: Good move, Donald. That Foxconn statement wasn't much less ambiguous than the one that came out of the Singapore summit. This kind of manufacturing is pretty much doomed to failure in the USA. Here's a link to an article from the new york times about Apple's Mac Pro plant in Texas that shows why: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/technology/iphones-apple-china-made.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryingdick Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Wisconsin will make more than it had yesterday. The people of New York argue about Amazon and tax breaks. You can't tax companies that are not present. If Wisconsin doesn't want it North Dakota does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolboy Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 2 minutes ago, Cryingdick said: Wisconsin will make more than it had yesterday. The people of New York argue about Amazon and tax breaks. You can't tax companies that are not present. If Wisconsin doesn't want it North Dakota does. According to the original deal, the cost per job would be $346,000. "Numerous economists expressed skepticism that the benefits would exceed the costs of the deal.[6][7][8][9][10][11] The nonpartisan Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that the Foxconn plant would not break even on the investment until 2043, and that was in the best-case scenario.[12] Others noted that Foxconn had in the past made similar claims about job creation in various localities which did not turn out to be true.[2][13][4]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn's_Wisconsin_plant Foxconn package cost Wisconsin eight times as much per job as similar 2017 state jobs deals https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/05/foxconn-package-cost-wisconsin-eight-times-much-per-job-similar-2017-state-jobs-deals/1080214001/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srikcir Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 5 hours ago, rooster59 said: it will build a factory in Wisconsin after the company's chairman spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump Foxconn's changed decision might be more due the efforts of newly elected Democrat Governor Tony Evers than to Trump. https://fox6now.com/2019/01/31/gov-tony-evers-foxconn-say-wisconsin-project-moving-forward/ But don't expect Trump to give a democrat governor Evers who beat Trump's favorite Scott Walker any credit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spidermike007 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 They will build the plant, far smaller than originally stated, and this after being given billions in federal and state tax breaks. Now, they are only going to have about 900 employees total, and mostly R & D. It was just another in a constant string of Trump giveaways. The biggest issue here, is that Trump is a horrifically bad negotiator. The art of I cannot make a deal to save my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keemapoot Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 42 minutes ago, spidermike007 said: They will build the plant, far smaller than originally stated, and this after being given billions in federal and state tax breaks. Now, they are only going to have about 900 employees total, and mostly R & D. It was just another in a constant string of Trump giveaways. The biggest issue here, is that Trump is a horrifically bad negotiator. The art of I cannot make a deal to save my life. With Trump, all these deals are completely predictable. They are designed to look like a huge deal, when not really that big, they are calculated moves on the part of corporations to deal with risk assessment that Trump might be more lenient on them during his term, and they are designed to be able to retract from or greatly reduce or draw down involvement later. And, as you say, lots of giveaways so the corporations are not out anything anyway. They are nothing more than the usual catering to Trump's ego, to keep him off their backs, while at the same time, made out to be bigger deals than they really are to make Trump look good. Typical Trump blowing his own empty horn. And, to add insult to injury, Foxconn will likely import huge numbers of hardware engineers (or employ them remotely) from Taiwan and China, software engineers from India and other places to do the work in the new US facility! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryingdick Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 2 hours ago, bristolboy said: According to the original deal, the cost per job would be $346,000. "Numerous economists expressed skepticism that the benefits would exceed the costs of the deal.[6][7][8][9][10][11] The nonpartisan Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that the Foxconn plant would not break even on the investment until 2043, and that was in the best-case scenario.[12] Others noted that Foxconn had in the past made similar claims about job creation in various localities which did not turn out to be true.[2][13][4]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn's_Wisconsin_plant Foxconn package cost Wisconsin eight times as much per job as similar 2017 state jobs deals https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/05/foxconn-package-cost-wisconsin-eight-times-much-per-job-similar-2017-state-jobs-deals/1080214001/ Divide the figure by a multiple of years. Also if Wisconsin says no that's fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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