“The chairman of the Invest St. Paul, Luciano Almeida, confirmed this morning that Apple will produce mobile phones and tablets in Brazil,” Jon “DRJ” Najarian reports for OptionMonster. “The manufacturing will be done in the state by Taiwan’s Foxconn.”
“The Invest St. Paul is the agency of State government responsible for attracting investment and expansion in Sao Paulo,” Najarian reports. “According to Almeida, will be produced six million units of these products each year when the plant reaches full capacity in a period of 3 to 4 years. Right now, the forecast is for employees who are four to five thousand employees. In a second step, is not ruled out the manufacturing of computers.”
Najarian reports, “The chairman of the Invest St. Paul assured that the factory will be in the State of São Paulo and has ruled out the manufacturing of Apple products being made in Rio de Janeiro, with the support of the entrepreneur Eike Batista.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Travis L.” for the heads up.]
I am an Apple fan but things like that bother me , why not built a factory in this country ? Apple is making a lot of money , they can afford it .
My guess would be wages, benefits and UNIONS.
Yes: the wages in Brazilia’s rural regions are no higher than in China, so that kind of decision would have sense.
Wall Street downgrades companies that waste money on employee wages because it lowers profit margins. They’re already dissatisfied with Apple’s margins, so I think building factories to employee humans working for more than minimum wage would be rightly frowned upon. Adding things like health insurance is definitely costly.
They will be building them on American shores. What more do you want?
Consider that Apple market share across all product lines is lowest in South America. Most of the South American countries have massive import tariffs which makes the cost of Apple equipment cost almost twice what it does in the USA. By producing in Brazil Apple will be able to avoid the tariffs in the Mercosur countries and sell product there for roughly what it sells for here. Latin America is growing too rapidly for Apple’s sales there to be such laggard. Besides, spreading production around the world is a hedge against disaster in one country.
And while I would prefer that Apple opened a plant in the USA, I’m not naive enough to underestimate the pummeling that Wall Street would give the stock if that happened.
For the same reason Dell, HP, Motorolla and every other American electronics giant doesn’t: costs
“why not built a factory in this country”
For the Brazilians it IS this country. Stop thinking US-centric-ly.
Good news for Brazil.
Good news for Mac fans.
Bad news for China.
Bad news for America.
If we want to stabilize Latin America, they are going to need a decent high tech industry. That is in our own best interest.
It is also in our best interest to diversify American manufacturing and investing to somewhere else besides China and Taiwan.
Unfortunately if they were made in America they would be less affordable, and would sell far less
That’s the end of supply woes. Once iPads and iPhones are made by the Brazillians, they’ll be more than able to meet the demand.
(Wait, how many zeroes in a Brazillian?)
Brilliant!
A couple things- unless American workers want to work for nickels an hour, Apple won’t make products here. It used to in the 80s and 90s, but it got itself nearly put out of business that way. If Apple products cost 50% more, they would not be successful. It’s a sad reality but it is the reality.
That being said, this is a huge success for the left wing government of brazil. You have got a poor but fast-growing country of 200 million people, 5th largest in the world, who played hardball–saying you want to sell your products to our people? Then employ some of them. This will be great for brazil’s economy and it’s all a result of their protectionist tariff policies.
But it will also be good for America- Apple selling more phones in Brazil means a growing apple that can invest more in r&d, design, retail stores, support etc., and a more lucrative world market for American iOS software developers.
Brazil has a brutal import tax on items not made in Brazil,
making Apple products unaffordable. This is a good thing
for US, Apple, and Brazil. I think you will start seeing factories
in more countries, maybe even the US, as delivery prices continue to rise. Or, If you want the products assembled here,
ask your Congressmen for an import duty
6 million aren’t a lot. In 4 years, Apple will probably sell 200 or 300 million phones per year. This seems to be a factory for the local market only. Brazil has very high import tariff on electronics so it makes sense. It could also be an experiment for future factories in other places around the globe.
I’d rather Apple manufacture it’s products in Brazil rather than China
Me too. You can’t buy a Cuban cigar legally in the US, because Cuba is communist. Yet most of the gadgets you own are made in communist China. Insane.
Go, Brazil!
That kind of volume would indicate these units will be sold domestically not for export. So it is not bad news for America at all. It’s good for Apple to get more units in the hands of customers south of the equator.
“I am an Apple fan but things like that bother me , why not built a factory in this country ?”
If Apple built a union plant in the US, and then ever wanted to build another in any other state or country, then the NLRB would rule it illegal (Like Boeing), as retaliation against the union.
Back when Apple had manufacturing plants in the U.S., were they unionized?