“Apple has plans to build a manufacturing plant in Arizona that will extend its ‘Made in The USA’ efforts beyond the Mac Pro and other silicon facilities it maintains in Texas,” Matthew Panzarino reports for TechCrunch.
“The news came via a release from both the state of Arizona and the company GT Advanced Technologies, which will produce sapphire material.,” Panzarino reports. “The multi-year agreement, which was reported by MacRumors, includes a $580 million prepayment that will get paid back to Apple over five years starting in 2015, and requires that GT maintains a minimum level of manufacturing capacity.”
“The GT release alludes to the fact that Apple got a stellar deal on the glass, noting that ‘gross margins from this new materials business are expected to be substantially lower than GT’s historical equipment margins,’ but says that the strategic nature of the agreement and the fact that it’s a recurring deal offset the margins. Basically, Apple came knocking and GT couldn’t say no,” Panzarino reports. “Apple is purchasing an empty First Solar plant to repurpose it as a glass manufacturing center.”
Read more in the full article here.
Jake Smith reports for Pocket-lint, “Apple and the state of Arizona have announced a second Apple factory in the US – specifically in Mesa, Arizona – as Apple works to bring some manufacturing back to its home country.”
Smith reports, “The factory will be in partnership with GT Advanced, a company that will ‘own and operate furnaces and related equipment’ at the Apple facility. ‘We are proud to expand our domestic manufacturing initiative with a new facility in Arizona, creating more than 2,000 jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction,’ Apple told Pocket-lint in a statement. ‘This new plant will make components for Apple products and it will run on 100% renewable energy from day one, as a result of the work we are doing with SRP to create green energy sources to power the facility.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple strikes sapphire supply deal with GT Advanced – November 4, 2013
Gorilla glass maker Corning enters into strategic partnership with Samsung Display – October 23, 2013
Sapphire glass may be used in 2014 iPhone Retina display, sources say – September 18, 2013
Vertu COO: Apple investigated sapphire crystal displays, but found them infeasible at this time – June 13, 2013
Corning’s Gorilla Glass vs. sapphire for mobile touch displays – May 28, 2013
Apple’s next iPhone screen could be made of Sapphire – May 2, 2013