Foxconn’s plan to build an LCD factory in Wisconsin has been killed and revived over the past year, eventually resulting in a scaled-down version of the original plan, according to various reports on The Verge.
According to The Verge, Foxconn originally signed a contract with Wisconsin that says it will build a Generation 10.5 LCD fabrication plant and create 13,000 jobs, in exchange for up to $4 billion in tax subsidies. Now, the plan is to build a Generation 6 LCD plant that is one-twentieth the size of the plan President Trump originally proposed. The new plan will only generate 1,500 jobs, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers told CNBC.
The company will also begin using firms headquartered in Connecticut and England, differing from its prior commitment to hire “Wisconsin-based” suppliers. Experts in LCD manufacturing also told The Verge that the plans Foxconn submitted for the project do not appear to have an LCD fab.
In response to these findings, the project’s general contractor told The Verge that Wisconsin’s clay soil doesn’t require the type of foundation other LCD fabs need.
The Verge also reporter that Foxconn’s Louis Woo wants to be “cut some slack,” claiming that “Foxconn has never operated in such a fashion before,” regarding the attention the project was received.
“No matter where we build our factory, we don’t normally share with people when we’re going to build, how large a factory, by when I’m going to hire so many people,” Woo said in a video on Yahoo Taiwan.
Source: The Verge
