TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's No. 1 electronics contract manufacturer by revenue, plans to invest $1 billion to build factories in Vietnam, company spokesman Edmund C.A. Ding said Monday.
Although the company has not yet chosen a location for the production site, it is favoring northern Vietnam, and Ding said he expects mass production at the planned Vietnam factories to begin "within a year."
"Vietnam's general investment environment is pretty good," Ding said. "We've considered the logistics and the company's supply chain and we've taken into account the opinion of our existing and target customers."
Hon Hai, a contract maker of a wide variety of electronics and parts, including motherboards and connectors, currently has factories in Taiwan, China, Brazil, the Czech Republic and Ireland.
The Hon Hai group, which includes Foxconn International Holdings Ltd., is a contract supplier of iPod for Apple Computer Inc. and mobile phones for Nokia Corp.
