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Foxconn Is Reconsidering Plan For Wisconsin Factory (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Foxconn, the giant Taiwan-based company that announced plans for a $10 billion display-making factory in Wisconsin, now says it is rethinking the project's focus because of "new realities" in the global marketplace (Warning source may be paywalled; alternative source). The company said Wednesday that it remained committed to creating as many as 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, and continued to "actively consider opportunities" involving flat-screen technology. But it said it was also "examining ways for Wisconsin's knowledge workers to promote research and development." "The global market environment that existed when the project was first announced has changed," Foxconn said in a statement. "As our plans are driven by those of our customers, this has necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects, including Wisconsin." But the company said its presence in Wisconsin remained a priority, and said it was "broadening the base of our investment" there. The statement followed a Reuters report quoting Louis Woo, a special assistant to Foxconn's chairman, Terry Gou, as saying that the costs of manufacturing screens for televisions and other consumer products are too high in the United States. "In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.," Mr. Woo told Reuters. "We can't compete." Some Wisconsin Republicans blamed the company's change in plans on the election of Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, to succeed Mr. Walker, a Republican, in November. In a joint statement, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and the Senate majority leader, Scott Fitzgerald, said it was "not surprising Foxconn would rethink building a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin under the Evers administration." The lawmakers added: "The company is reacting to the wave of economic uncertainty that the new governor has brought with his administration."
Have you seen the deal that Wisconsin was going to give them at the expense of the taxpayers? No one was going to benefit from that arrangement except for Foxconn. They could have put all that money towards encouraging tech development in their state instead.
See title.
Yes, Trump got played like a baby by Foxconn. They roped him like a baby calf and he was more than happy to buy their ridiculous claims. Anyone who was watching this knew that the likelihood of Foxconn building a huge plant in Wisconsin was near zero.
To all you Wisconsin voters who believed Trump's blather and his insane, over-the-top promises, sorry, but you got exactly what you voted for: a giant bag of bullshit.
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PS- Coal isn't coming back either; it's as dead as disco. Your first fucking clue should have been the Kentucky Coal Museum installing solar panels on its roof. (It's true, look it up.) But that just wasn't obvious enough for you, was it?
Still, don't worry- I hear the new Space Force rockets will be powered by "beautiful clean coal".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
They cite labor costs. https://venturebeat.com/2019/0... If you subsidize a company to the tune of $230,000 per employee, but the employee costs are too high, well golly gosh.
You can make up your own mind who is responsible.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Apple doesn't use Foxconn displays. They use a mix of displays from Samsung (for OLEDs) and LG (LCDs, and possibly OLEDs in the future if LG can fix production problems). In any case: they don't use Foxconn displays. What they use Foxconn for is assembling the iPhone, the individual components are mostly sourced from other companies.
And, in fact, that's the problem. Manufacturing LCD displays in Wisconsin makes no sense whatsoever. This is the main problem American manufacturers have: most of the raw materials to make these things are being refined in Asia, and most of the final assembly is also in Asia, so manufacturing a component in the US means you have to ship raw materials to the US from Asia and then ship the component back to Asia for it to be put in whatever it's going to end up in. Needless to say, that's far more expensive then just shipping parts around Asia.
he got exactly what he wanted out of the deal: a political prop to use for winning the 2016 election. A fair trade for a bunch of tax dollars collected mostly from working class Americans.
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The contract failed an audit, it didn't require the employee work in Wisconsin to count as a worker at Wisconsin, it only needed them to be paid out of that office. Foxconn would have transferred their US employees payroll to Wisconsin to take advantage of the tax break.
https://dailyreporter.com/2018/12/20/audit-faults-plans-to-credit-foxconn-for-work-outside-state/
"Wisconsin’s economic-development agency needs to modify procedures to ensure tax credits aren’t awarded for Foxconn Technology Group employees who don’t do work in the state, which would violate state law and the state’s contract with the company, an audit released Wednesday said....The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation incorrectly wrote guidelines that would allow Foxconn employees who are not doing work in the state, but who are paid in Wisconsin, to be included in the tally, the audit said."
And for the workers, well they were planning to bring in Chinese workers:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/foxconn-considers-bringing-chinese-personnel-to-wisconsin-as-u-s-labor-market-tightens-1541505600
"Foxconn Technology Group is considering bringing in personnel from China to help staff a large facility under construction in southern Wisconsin as it struggles to find engineers and other workers in one of the tightest labor markets in the U.S."
It didn't pass the sniff test. It looked like one giant tax game for Foxconn.
Under the new Republican corporate tax deal, it's cheaper to earn the money abroad, and repatriate that money at the 8% repatriation tax rate into the US rather than earn it in the US (at 21% corporation tax), so Foxconns tax deal isn't as sweet as it would have been.
... and it's well known here that Foxconn was never really going to bring 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin, because of what they did in Pennsylvania. The whole thing was a stunt to help get Gov Walker and Trump get reelected. It failed, Walker lost in November. Now we'll see what happens to President Shutdown.
See title.
Yes, Trump got played like a baby by Foxconn. They roped him like a baby calf and he was more than happy to buy their ridiculous claims.
Despite the article saying specifically that it was the election of a Democrat that changed their mind?
Regarding the Trump thing, you're complaining about something that doesn't go our way in the middle of the situation. The right time to pass judgement is when it's all over, when the dust has settled, and when we can evaluate whether minor setbacks in the middle were worth the overall outcome.
Similar with the N. Korea peace negotiations. These things take time, there will be some back and forth, and possibly nothing will come of it... but now is not the time to make judgement. Let the situation play out, and *then* figure out whether we are better off. At the very least, the president talked us out of a nuclear war.
State governments giving away billions in tax benefits is arguably a bad idea. How long would it take for 13,000 additional labor-jobs to be worth the loss of $3 billion in tax credits? Even if you account for add-on benefits to the economy, it would take decades... and depending on inflation and other details, the deal might possibly never be revenue neutral.
We really don't know at this point whether this is good or bad for the US, and the tendency to blame Trump for every little thing that irks you in the country is tedious as hell.
Grow up, set your hatred aside, and post something insightful for a change.
No, the article did not say it was because a Democrat got elected. It said the REPUBLICANS said that was why.
"Republicans who control Wisconsin’s Legislature suggested that the arrival of Gov. Tony Evers, the Democrat who ousted Mr. Walker, was partly to blame."
When this deal was originally discussed on /., there were many ignorant people pushing this incorrect narrative then. I see that you did not learn the truth at that time.
The deal calls for payments (not just tax reductions) from the state to Foxconn. They are called tax credits -- but if the company's tax is negative because of the credits, money will flow from the state to the company.
This is similar to tax credits for solar power installations -- if your taxes go negative, you get a check from the government (unlike credits for electric vehicles, which cannot result in you getting a check from the government).
They only issue now is how much of the credits are dependent on performance by Foxconn.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
"We need both parties brought to heel, and perhaps a few more contenders in the mix"
Nope. Third party candidates have zero chance to get elected, and they just confuse the issue. Political parties were never mentioned in the Constitution because they were seen as a plague, but just giving up on regulating them was a total failure which should immediately and conclusively put paid to the rumors of the founders' genius. At this point the only way we'll get a credible third party is if there's sufficient schism within one of the major parties that it splits in two, but thanks to partisan dumbshits in voting booths, that would all but guarantee a win for the other side. Sadly, the only party that might actually split would be the Democrats. The Republicans have demonstrated time and again that they are united in screwing over the nation, and the Democrats have ultimately proven that they are disconnected and thus ineffectual. The Republicans hang together, and the rest of us twist in the wind.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The GOP in Wisconsin did everything they could to undermine democracy and the will of the voters. However it was abundantly clear before the election that Walker's deal with Foxconn was all but dead regardless of how the election were to go; now that we see that reality coming to bear they are quick to lay blame at the feet of the opposition that has had no opportunity yet to do anything about it.
It's no surprise that the conservative voice here on drudgedot couldn't pass on including the GOP opinion on the matter.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I live in Wisconsin, and I voted to elect Governor Evers (and against Trump). The Foxconn deal was a huge mistake. As others have noted, the state investment doesn't justify the jobs created. Unfortunately, it's probably too late to renege on it, even though the governor is probably tempted to (the legislature is still Republican-controlled, but apparently he could do it by pulling environmental permits). There have already been massive infrastructure investments and the use of eminent domain to obtain properties. I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago is essentially being completely rebuilt right now (it's a pain, too, because we deal with much heavier traffic whenever I go to Chicago or to visit my family in Ohio.
On a more human note, my brother-in-law just got hired by them as an engineer (and yes, he's from Wisconsin, not Taiwan or the PRC) He is spending the next several months (at least until May, and this started around Jan. 1) working in Taiwan. They've hired a ton of professional staff. I'm in a graduate program at a Milwaukee university in computer science and they have been recruiting there. I don't know about manufacturing workers, but if this deal blows up, there's going to be a lot of people who are ALREADY working there who are going to get the shaft.
This deal may have a silver lining, however, because many people would like to see Milwaukee connected to Chicago to have SE Wisconsin essentially become part of Chicagoland. The economic benefits of that could be big. Increased rail service linking the two cities could be a byproduct of this project, which would potentially allow more Milwaukee residents to work in Chicago (and vice versa). We were going to get that with the last democratic governor but Walker pulled out of the deal because trains are for communists. If other companies came to the same region (which is a great location, because you are about 1 hour from OHare and a huge intermodal facility) it could end up being a positive. I'm not optimistic about that because I distrust everyone who was involved in the original deal.