Reuters Reports Company Will Focus On Research, Development In Wisconsin
(WPR)---Tech giant Foxconn won't build televisions in Wisconsin, according to a report in Reuters, focusing instead on hiring engineers and researchers at its Mount Pleasant facility.
While Foxconn Technology Group said Wednesday it remained committed to the Wisconsin project and the jobs it promised, the move would represent a dramatic about-face for the company, whose promise to bring TV manufacturing to North America helped it secure billions of dollars in state tax incentives.
Reuters spoke to Louis Woo, a special assistant to Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, who cited the steep costs of manufacturing TV screens in the United States.
"In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.," Woo told Reuters. "We can’t compete."
Woo said it would be more profitable to make LCD panels in China and Japan, then ship them to Mexico for final assembly.
In a statement Wednesday morning to WPR, Foxconn did not dispute the Reuters report, but said the company remained committed to Wisconsin.
"We remain committed to the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park project, the creation of 13,000 jobs, and to our long-term investment in Wisconsin," the company said in an email. "As we have previously noted, the global market environment that existed when the project was first announced has changed. As our plans are driven by those of our customers, this has necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects, including Wisconsin."
Woo told Reuters about three-quarters of Foxconn's eventual Wisconsin jobs would be in research, development and design.
"In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory," Woo told Reuters. "You can’t use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment."
The massive scale of the Foxconn project was a major selling point for former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who boasted that once it was finally built, the Wisconsin plant would be the size of "11 Lambeau fields."
Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said the latest news was "devastating" for Wisconsin taxpayers.
"Every step of the way Foxconn has overpromised and underdelivered," Hintz said in a statement. "We were promised manufacturing jobs. We were promised state of the art LCD production. We were promised a game-changing economic opportunity for our state. And now, it appears Foxconn is living up to their failed track record in the U.S. — leaving another state and community high and dry."
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, release a joint statement pointing the finger at new Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
"We don’t blame Foxconn for altering plans in an ever-changing technology business," Vos and Fitzgerald said. "It’s also not surprising Foxconn would rethink building a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin under the Evers administration."
Evers had yet to issue a statement on the news. He had said recently that he wanted to work with Foxconn to help the company "be the best corporate citizen possible."
The incentives package Walker negotiated and signed in 2017 would have Wisconsin state government pay Foxconn up to about $3 billion in tax credits depending on the size of the plant it builds and the number of employees it hires. When all state and local incentives are added up, Wisconsin's Foxconn package totaled roughly $4.5 billion.
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