Foxconn Building Hostels Near Chennai Plant To Accommodate 60,000 Employees: Report

iPhone manufacturer Foxconn is building hostels for about 60,000 employees near its manufacturing plant in Chennai to boost the production of Apple devices, according to an ET report. It added that in response to the strong domestic demand for Apple products and the company’s aim to diversify away from China, “brisk construction” is going on at a 20-acre plot in Tamil Nadu.

Foxconn manufactures iPhones at its facility in Sriperumbudur. The contract manufacturing company employs over 15,000 workers, most of which are women. In the next 18 months, the number of employees is expected to go up to 70,000.

Apple is looking to boost capacity outside China, particularly in India and Vietnam.

The ET report, quoting a person aware of the development, said the first hostel, which can accommodate 20,000 people, will be ready in the next 10 months. Apart from the hostels, the company is also constructing new manufacturing facilities inside its Sriperumbudur plant.

Foxconn will also provide both food and medicine for new quarters. The same model is also followed by Foxconn in China.

At Foxconn’s factory in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, the company is also manufacturing Made-in-India iPhone 14. Apple has said it is “excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India”. Apple started making iPhones in India with the iPhone SE in May 2017 at its contract manufacturer Wistron’s facility in Bengaluru.

After the iPhone SE, Apple started making the iPhone 6S that was launched in 2015. This was followed by iPhone 11, 12 and 13. The iPhone 14is the sixth iPhone to be made in India.

Apple is yet to make any of its top-end iPhones in India like the Pro or Pro Max series. Also, the iPhones made in India are for domestic sales within India only.

According to JPMorgan analysts, Apple may move about 5 per cent of iPhone 14 production from late 2022 to India, which is the world’s second-biggest smartphone market after China.

“Analysts are also estimating about 25 per cent of all Apple products, including Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods, to be manufactured outside China by 2025 from 5 per cent currently,” according to a Reuters report.

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