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this time, india wants to follow zhengzhou's example.

according to the times of india, foxconn is currently evaluating several states in southern india and plans to select suitable ones to build cities similar to zhengzhou, china.

these states are also working hard to compete for foxconn. among them, telangana has proposed to provide 2,000 acres of land (about 8.09 square kilometers) for the construction of a supply chain park, andhra pradesh plans to provide 2,500 acres (about 10.12 square kilometers), and karnataka is willing to provide 300 acres (about 1.21 square kilometers).

babu, minister of information technology and industry of telangana state, revealed that they will draw on foxconn's successful experience in zhengzhou to not only build a production base, but also equip it with complete facilities such as dormitories, hospitals, fire stations, cinemas and supermarkets. they hope to accommodate 300,000 to 400,000 workers and attract suppliers from different countries and regions to settle in.

workers are eating in the cafeteria at foxconn's factory in tamil nadu, india. (photo source: visual china)

although foxconn has high hopes for the indian factory, according to the bbc, it is mired in public opinion due to issues such as local labor recruitment. therefore, this year foxconn chose to increase its investment in china again. in july, it signed a cooperation agreement with the zhengzhou government, invested about 1 billion yuan to build a new headquarters building, and recruited workers on a large scale to prepare for the production of iphone 16.

large gap in labor quality

can india successfully copy zhengzhou’s homework?

on the surface, india's labor costs are lower and the government has launched a series of incentive programs, but in reality, foxconn's progress in india has not been smooth.

in order to recreate a "chinese factory" in india, foxconn specially sent chinese employees to india to supervise operations and train indian workers. however, this made many indian workers dissatisfied, complaining that the factory settings were not localized enough.

a senior indian manager said: "including standard operating procedures, work instructions, and commands, all machine documents are written in chinese. the software interface is also in chinese, and even the emergency button is not localized." in his opinion, learning chinese operations is not easy.

there were also cultural differences that the local indian workers could not understand, for example, why a machine breakdown lasting 30 minutes would make their chinese colleagues so upset.

at the same time, because indian workers are not as well educated as chinese workers, there was once a rumor that "the yield rate of iphone 15 assembled in indian factories is only half." although a foxconn executive denied this statement, since the executive only gave a general description and did not give specific numbers, many people still questioned the yield rate of indian factories.

in addition to acclimating indian workers to the intensity of factory work, foxconn must contend with local policymakers, landowners and labor groups.

foxconn factory in india (source: social media)

for example, indian law stipulates that the working hours per weekday are 8 hours. foxconn tried to persuade local governments to pass legislation to change it to 12 hours, but the plan was eventually shelved after major protests.

"if i work for 12 hours, i will die," said padmini, a worker on the assembly line at a foxconn factory in india. "i have to stay alive to work."

not only are their efficiency lower than that of china, their work attitude is biased, and their yield rate is criticized, but indian factories are also embroiled in gender discrimination controversy.

in june this year, reuters revealed that foxconn refused to hire married women in its factories in india. although indian law does not explicitly prohibit gender discrimination in recruitment, this is contrary to the claims of the powerful local trade unions. this incident also caused foxconn to face a huge public opinion crisis in the local area.

“we are so spoiled in china,” said a senior foxconn manager who was transferred from china to india. “everything is expensive in india except labor.”

although the labor cost is lower, due to the quality gap, foxconn eventually handed the task of rushing the work back to the zhengzhou factory.

this september,applethe autumn launch conference is imminent. in foxconn's zhengzhou factory, chinese workers are also busy preparing for the production of iphone 16.

as usual, in order to cope with production, the zhengzhou factory had already carried out large-scale recruitment in july and august. according to media reports in august, the average number of new recruits per day exceeded 2,000, of which about 50,000 were recruited in july.

september to december is the peak shipment period for the iphone series of products, and it is also the peak production season for foxconn's zhengzhou factory. apple mobile phones produced here account for half of the global shipments.

"in china, foxconn requires workers to work long hours, have clear goals, and minimize delays and errors. these are not difficult for workers there, but are difficult to replicate in india," indian media said.

can the infrastructure and supply chain keep up?

foxconn has made zhengzhou, henan, its production hub in mainland china since 2010. it took foxconn 14 years to turn the foxconn zhengzhou industrial park into the world's largest apple production and assembly base, with more than 300,000 workers during peak production periods.

at the same time, both the henan provincial level and the zhengzhou municipal level have given strong support to the development of foxconn. in addition to providing foxconn with preferential policies such as land and taxation, they have also implemented a "top-down" recruitment model for its most urgently needed labor force.

the industrial park has also been expanding its investment in infrastructure and public services year by year, including adding various living facilities, renovating employee dormitories, and setting up hospitals.

foreign media believe that foxconn's industrial chain in zhengzhou has developed extremely maturely, with high-quality labor, lower management costs than in other regions, and obvious production capacity advantages.

of course, the changes brought about by this cooperation are two-way. the output value created by foxconn zhengzhou industrial park drives an average export volume of 30 billion us dollars per year, and the cumulative import and export volume accounts for about 60% of the total import and export volume of henan province and 80% of zhengzhou city. at the same time, during the entire "13th five-year plan" period, zhengzhou foxconn has cumulatively driven more than 200 related industrial chain companies to settle in zhengzhou industrial zone, completing an investment of 300 billion yuan.

but foxconn's factories in india have not yet reached this level. although india's labor costs are relatively low, there are various hidden costs.

unlike china, india does not have a huge network of domestic material and equipment manufacturers. to this day, most of the parts needed for india's supply chain still have to be imported from china, and expensive transportation costs must be paid, which in the process increases the total cost.

india's infrastructure and power equipment also need to be improved.

just this summer, facing the rare historical high temperature, the indian government temporarily issued a "power restriction order" for enterprises, requiring a number of factories and enterprises, including foxconn, to reduce production electricity consumption by 30%. this is a huge blow to foxconn's production capacity.

"in the next few years, india's growth in apple's supply chain will be limited to the assembly of final products, and the production of more critical electronic and mechanical components will still be concentrated in china, because india cannot yet compare with china in terms of efficiency, infrastructure and talent pool," the nikkei asian review once wrote.

foxconn in india: fighting again and again despite repeated failures

in fact, foxconn began testing the indian market as early as 2006. after years of hard work and repeated setbacks, it has yet to build an industrial park like the one in zhengzhou.

in 2023, foxconn chairman liu yangwei met with modi during his visit to india. (photo source: official social media)

according to india's business standard, foxconn entered the indian market in 2006 and established two mobile phone production parks in tamil nadu, mainly manufacturing hitech and nokia mobile phones.

along withnokiawith the decline of the indian market, foxconn's local production park naturally could not continue to operate. when trying to close the nokia mobile phone production park, foxconn was protested by local workers.

it was also from 2006 that foxconn established cooperation with apple to produce iphones for it, and gradually became the world's largest iphone oem. for many years thereafter, foxconn's main production plants were all in china, and it had never made major investments or built plants in india.

in 2014, modi was elected prime minister of india and launched the "make in india" campaign, hoping to attract foreign investment to build factories through various policy incentives, complete parts production and assembly in india, and thereby reduce dependence on china's manufacturing industry.

foxconn began to set its sights on india in 2015. in august of that year, foxconn announced plans to build a factory in india, and its subsidiaries will manufacture mobile phones for some brands including xiaomi.

the second attempt to build a factory was also not satisfactory. in november 2016, the indian government announced the abolition of high-denomination banknotes. the severe cash shortage caused foxconn's revenue in india to drop by 50%, forcing it to cut production by half.

this series of turmoil did not reduce foxconn's confidence in india. in 2017, foxconn began to move apple's iphone assembly production line to india, and then expanded rapidly to open multiple factories.

in 2020, foxconn began producing the latest apple products in india.

foxconn is betting on india and trying to place more production capacity in india, but so far, the plan has not been entirely smooth.

in terms of production capacity, according to the wall street journal, apple plans to move 25% of global iphone production to india by 2025. however, as of january 2023, india only accounts for 5-7% of apple's total manufacturing business. by the end of 2023, india is responsible for 14% of global iphone production.

overall, the expansion progress of foxconn's factories in india has not met expectations, but foxconn remains committed.

in 2023, apple ceo cook visited india and planned to expand production and smartphone sales in india. this year, foxconn invested $600 million and $500 million in two locations in india, and at the end of the year, announced plans to increase investment in india to meet orders from apple, with the investment amount exceeding $1.541 billion.

"let us contribute to india's manufacturing and social progress," foxconn chairman liu yangwei said during his visit to india this year. foxconn has invested more than us$10 billion in india and plans to further increase investment next year.

he also expressed interest in establishing "industrial towns" near india.

now, the southern states of india are actively seeking investment from foxconn, hoping to replicate a "foxconn zhengzhou industrial park" to drive local economic development.

but can india achieve its wish?