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Murphy’s Law

Is Foxconn Double Crossing Walker?

Latest admission by company gives the game away.

By Bruce Murphy - Jul 3rd, 2018 10:42 am 

Foxconn chairman Terry Gou and Governor Scott Walker signing a memorandum of understanding. Photo from the State of Wisconsin.

Back on May 23 the Nikkei Asian Review did a story citing industry sources who said Foxconn was going to scale back its plans for Racine County and would not build the kind of plant it promised the administration of Gov. Scott Walker. 

Oh no, said Foxconn officials, quickly releasing a statement denying the story: “Foxconn can categorically state that our commitment to create 13,000 jobs and to invest US$10 billion to build our state-of-the-art Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park in Wisconsin remains unchanged,” the company said, as a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel assured its readers.

But others in the media did some investigating and found the story was true. As Arthur Thomas reported for the Biz Times on June 20th: “The first LCD fabrication facility on the Foxconn Technology Group campus in Mount Pleasant will be a Gen 6 plant, not a Gen 10.5 plant as originally planned.”

This is not a small change. Bob O’Brien, a partner at Display Supply Chain Consultants, told the publication a Gen 6 plant produces roughly 5 foot by 6 foot glass panels “while a Gen 10.5 plant produces 10 foot by 11 foot panels. He also said a $10 billion investment makes sense for a Gen 10.5 plant, but a Gen 6 plant would require a $2 billion to $3 billion investment.”

Read more: https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2018/07/03/murphys-law-is-foxconn-double-crossing-walker/