14 DAY TRIAL // Foxconn Electronics and HP announced that they signed up for a partnership and will jointly build a production plant in the Russian Federation. Foxconn is a computer hardware company that specializes in motherboards and cases as well as building computer parts under contract for other brands, while its partner in this joint venture, HP is now the biggest supplier of personal computers in the world. Their new production plant is going to manufacture liquid crystal display panels and computers and it is hoped that it will help strengthen the market position of the two companies.
The new computer manufacturing facility will be located in the Saint Petersburg industrial area and its building should start this fall. Upon completion, the two companies will have a facility measuring 60 000 square meters and an estimated work force of over 5000 workers, according to the hardware news site xbitlabs. While not yet known for sure, the manufacturing facility is said to build PCs and LCDs and maybe notebooks too.
Foxconn Electronics already has an estimated work force of around 200,000 workers around the world, so the work force increase will not affect the economical position of the company too much. Among the brands served by Foxconn there are companies like Dell, while HP currently has a number of computer parts made by contract manufacturing companies that are in direct competition with its partner. Therefore, this alliance between HP and Foxconn may drastically change the market position of several other computer manufacturers.
According to several sources, it is expected that the Russian production plant will mainly serve the Easter and Northern Europe computer markets by producing cheaper LCD panels and computers. This move might upset several other companies that are currently using Foxconn's manufacturing capabilities in China.