Foxconn and Sharp Team Up To Build $8.8 Billion LCD Plant In China (reuters.com) 66
Foxconn was in the news recently for plans to "automate entire factories" in China, but the electronics manufacturing company has also announced plans with Sharp to build a $8.8 billion (61 million yuan) factory in China to produce liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). Reuters reports: Sakai Display Products Corp's plant will be a so-called Gen-10.5 facility specializing in large-screen LCDs and will be operational by 2019, the company said at a signing event with local officials in Guangzhou on Friday. It said the plant will have capacity equating to 92 billion yuan a year. The heavy investment is aimed at increasing production to meet expected rising demand for large-screen televisions and monitors in Asia. Sakai Display Products Corp's plans for the Guangzhou plant come as Hon Hai seeks to turn the joint venture into a subsidiary, investing a total of 15.1 billion yuan in the company. The venture will also sell 436,000 shares for 17.1 billion yuan to an investment co-owned by Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou, giving Hon Hai a 53 percent interest in the business and lowering Sharp's stake from to 26 percent from 40 percent.
Re: Maybe Foxconn can bail out Toshiba? (Score:1)
Re:Good luck to US staying relevant... (Score:4, Interesting)
You think anything Trump "promised" will actually happen?
Americans who thought they were going to be able to drop out of high school, get a job at the Ford plant, and buy a house with a swimming pool – like their dads did – are delusional.
(Yeah, I'm an American too, but I went to college and write software for a living. Now I just need to make it ten more years to retirement. Sometimes I wonder if I'll make it.)
I'm not holding my breath on tariffs. (And I agree that they're a bad idea.)
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Implying that Hillary (two Ls, BTW) has committed treason? Lack of any trials or convictions not withstanding, what is it you think she's done that was treasonous? Or are you just parroting the same propaganda and fake news that Breitbart and Kellyanne Conway have been endlessly vomiting up like a bad Linda Blair impersonation? Don't just keep spouting vague insinuations – what are the actual crimes that stopped you from voting for her? What? Benghazi? Email server? Clinton Foundation? Whitewater? If
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Imagine what damage a president could do to our society with a worshipping media and an endless supply of "get out of jail free" cards.
Yes, we have. That's why a shitheel Republican president in front of a shitheel Republican majority in congress is terrifying. Your cure is worse than the disease, and you're cheering about the treatment.
Re:Good luck to US staying relevant... (Score:4, Insightful)
But I'm not a criminal, I don't support anarchy, thuggery, or a caste system, so I couldn't vote for Hilary without violating my moral compass.
If you don't support anarchy, thuggery, or a caste system, you also cannot support Trump. He does what he wants and gets away with it. He is protected by rough men with guns who don't give a shit about you, especially now. And he is a poster child for the capitalistic caste system in America.
He may do terrible things - but like millions of other Americans, I fall into the camp of, "He can't be worse."
What an incredibly naive and unfounded idea.
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Think think of it this way:
Choose the lesser of two evils.
or think of it this way:
Choose the unknown over the terrible.
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...the people who voted for him ... [are] a bunch of welfare losers..."
I'm not sure which way you're coming down on this, Are you trying to say that all 63M people who went trumpster diving on Nov. 8th are all on welfare? Whatever else I may think about them I'm pretty sure they're not all on welfare. Crack cocaine maybe, but not welfare – not all 63M of them.
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Could it be that the economists who pretend that economics is a science have led us down a path leading to assured economic destruction? We have a money system backed by nothing, not a fucking thing! How long do you think that farce can be kept going? The average length of an empire before precipitous decline is 250 years, the USA is now 240 years old, hmmm...
International trade is immaterial. (Score:2)
Do you think the people who voted for him understand jack or shit about international trade?
Doesn't matter. When you attempt to write off enough people, they will seek two things:
A cathartic release expressed on those that caused the losses
A restoration of jobs and prosperity for those that were displaced.
If they're smart, they also pursue the means to insure against future threats. Right now, I'd wager that they're smarter and determined than you think.
[anti-American diatribe]
Sounds like you don't know or appreciate the US. For once, it actually is the fault of the people that you mentioned.
Re: Good luck to US staying relevant... (Score:2, Informative)
All those white trash morons who voted Trump will never admit to being fooled. They've been carefully fed a steady diet of bullshit and their stubborn independent nature makes them deny their wrong doings. Trump could install himself as dictator of America, rule for 30 years destroying the country and he'd just blame Obama and those pig fuckers would sit in the ruins nodding in aggreance. They can't admit failure. They've been raised and carefully fed a steady diet of propaganda to ensure that. They'll just
Re: Good luck to US staying relevant... (Score:1)
Best explanation I've seen of this issue. Better than all the rationalisation, what does it all mean, where did we go wrong, are we all just a bunch of racist pigs, what do we do now???
Yes. Yes Trump voters are. But you knew all those people like your dumb uncle from Wisconsin were gonna vote for Trumpo the Clown. And now there is nothing to do, because you millennials didn't vote. Yup, that means you asshole, if you didn't or protest voted, you did this.
And we will all pay, each of us, because you cou
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Fuck you asshole. I'm in California and apparently it was all over before I voted early in the morning. With the Electorate College in place, it doesn't matter how I vote because every other state gets more say so than we do. Also, if Shillary hadn't been such a baby brat and demanded "her turn!", Bernie would have trounced the Cheeto Messiah. Fuck the DNC and the Clinton Machines, I blame them for the Trump win. I sure hope no one else in their family ever decides for office again, ever, not until th
Re: Good luck to US staying relevant... (Score:1)
They're actually good. (Score:2)
I'm not holding my breath on tariffs. (And I agree that they're a bad idea.)
It's the only answer that actually works.
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If people cared about living conditions, they would not be living in the US to begin with.
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Tariffs work fantastically, they are working quite well for China and Germany (the EU as well). China forces corporations to give it their trade secrets in return for access to their market and many companies are making this foolish trade. The US did very well when it had strong tariffs in place, and would do well again if we instituted them strongly especially in key industries we want to participate in (solar, electronics, communications, etc). If you only want cheap goods, pretty soon they'll need to
if they're "fully automating"... (Score:1)
cheap labor is no longer the draw.. so that would mean china's lax environmental regulations would be the main reason to build a new plant there instead of..well, pretty much anywhere else there's a market for the product.
Re: if they're "fully automating"... (Score:2, Informative)
And supply chain. South east Asia is where flat panels are made. So the supply chain is mature competitive and short.
Re:if they're "fully automating"... (Score:4, Interesting)
Less regulations are part of it and cheaper labor is still there. Atleast cheaper, more replaceable, and larger pool than Western societies. However, China has been eyeing Africa as the next labor intensive manufacturing hub. So cheap labor hasn't been a big factor for almost a decade.
The primary pull to manufacture in China is the ability to go from back-office-design to product-at-store quickly and cheaply. China has a massive economies of scale and network effect:
- Suppliers are many times across town. Worst case, via train from a neighboring country
- Suppliers are available at all levels of production. From raw materials like iron/wood/coal, simple parts like screws/buttons/wires, infrastructure like trucks/machines/office supplies, and highend parts like sensors/processors/LCDs.
- There is a well defined transportation and delivery infrastructure for distribution of supplies.
- Supply chain for export & delivery of a massive volume of goods at a minimal cost
- Connection to a massive network of global customers
- A lot of local knowledge in assembling and running the above network
- With each additional manufacturer and product offering, the above increases in value add
With all that going for China, I think people are underestimating their opponent and handicapping themselves in competing by passing it all off as "cheap labor" and "lax regulations". Those just end up being icing on the cake.
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USA is failing big time. Major big time.
Mass third-world invasion, and this stuff.
Failing. Betrayal.
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Yeah but who built that network? Not the Chinese...
Doesn't matter, does it? The Chinese may even know that they're not very good at building new, which is why they entertain deals like this one. Doesn't matter, because they're the world champions at maintaining what's built. China's entire society revolves around stasis and stability, especially now that they no longer transfer power between dynasties the hard way. Regardless of who built it for them, they participated in its construction, and now that the network exists, they can maintain it for a thou
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Regardless of who built it for them, they participated in its construction, and now that the network exists, they can maintain it for a thousand years.
If the world changes beneath them, they'll find that thousand years shrinking rapidly. Guess what the world does?
Not just 16x9 please (Score:4, Interesting)
If they're building panels for monitors, and they only produce them in 16x9, then my money is looking for a competitor that produces 16x10, or even 4x3 or 3x2 panels.
My money, my decision.
If my money remains unspent, so be it - I'll stick with what I already have, until it finally stops working.
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Unless Sharp is planning to go into the PC monitor business, 16x9 and wider panels are all that is likely to be produced there. There will still be scaling benefits that make other panels cheaper, since they will still have to buy some of the same materials from the same suppliers as everyone else. I for one am glad to see them make this step because Sharp LCD televisions have always been some of the best. I am super-happy with my 52" AQUOS and I was super-happy with my 32" AQUOS before it. (I wound up trad
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Why is the difference between 16:9 and 16:10 such a big deal?
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Turn the monitor 90deg, use it portrait. Long listings/editor windows. Stuff used less up higher. Less desk space too. No one seems to even think to do that.
Or they do think to try that but the vertical viewing angle when rotated to be horizontal is too narrow on a TN panel and the marketing departments of the manufacturers go out of their way to conceal which panels are TN, IPS, and VA.
Re: Not just 16x9 please (Score:2)
Get some black tape and stick a strip across the bottom of your monitor. There now you can stop crying cause you just got a 16x10 monitor.
You might want to move the icons dock to the side.
Re: Not just 16x9 please (Score:2)
Wow I failed at basic logic. The tape has to go on the side not at the bottom obviously.
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Strangle the consumer. They chose 16:9 screens for one simple reason - because of TV production, they're super cheap. A 1080P LCD is super cheap because they're used in TVs as well, as well as the video processors and scalers.
16:10 require their own manufacture of screens and video processor chips that aren't manufactured in huge quantities.
Ah, the "consumer" fallacy. (Score:2)
Pawning it off on some abstraction doesn't make your argument any more correct.
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"$8.8 billion (61 million yuan)" should be "$8.8 billion (61 billion yuan)"
Thank you. I don't knowa lot about international currencies, but I thought that looked wrong.
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build a $8.8 billion (61 million yuan)
Your Slashdot editorial staff at work. TFA has it right.
1 USD is worth aproximately 6.94 RMB
Actually, 1 USD - 6.94 yuan. Renminbi [bbc.com] is not the proper unit for that currency.
Re:Manish issues (Score:2)
They only understand lakhs and crores.
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More junk, faster. (Score:2)
Not only is it Chinese junk, they'll be cranking it out even faster.