05/21, 10:05am
Huai’an plant to host 35,800 workers
Asian manufacturer Foxconn is preparing to spend $210 million on a new Huai'an production line for Apple, according to China Daily. The plant has been announced by local officials, and is expected to consume 40,000 square meters (over 430,556 square feet), and employ 35,800 people. Predicted output is valued at 6 to 7 billion yuan, or somewhere between $949 million and $1.1 billion, with an import/export value of $55.8 million.
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05/15, 5:42pm
China's search giant rolls out first smartphone
Chinese search giant Baidu has released its first smartphone, as it was rumored to be preparing to do last week. The Changhong H5018 is built by Foxconn and is powered by Baidu's own mobile platform, Baidu Cloud.
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05/14, 3:21pm
Manufacturer pushes back against 'iTV' leak accusations
Foxconn is disavowing suggestions that chairman Terry Gou leaked news of an Apple TV set, writes The Next Web. Last week, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou was believed to have confirmed the existence of an Apple-branded TV. The executive was misquoted, Foxconn now says, and the company can neither confirm nor speculate about any such hardware.
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05/10, 7:00am
Apple, Foxconn to improve factory working conditions
Apple and controversial Chinese manufacturing partner Foxconn are said to be sharing the costs on improving work conditions at its Chinese factories. According to Reuters, Foxconn boss Terry Gou has spoken out on the matter, although he did not place a dollar figure on the investment or exactly where the money will be spent. The company has already raised worker wages by between 16 and 25 percent and has also added thousands more workers to its million-employee workforce to reduce the amount of overtime.
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05/09, 10:11am
Alleges new 10-inch iPad due fourth quarter
Apple will launch the next iPhone in September, and a 7-inch iPad in August, says DigiTimes. The claims are based on Taiwanese supply chain sources, who add that Pegatron has landed orders for the new iPhone, while Foxconn will handle the 7-inch iPad. The report further suggests that Pegatron will build a new 10-inch iPad for launch in the fourth quarter of this year.
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04/27, 9:30am
Foxconn central China plant sees protest
Foxconn saw a return to protests Friday after about 200 workers in the central China city of Wuhan threatened to jump off a roof in protest over working conditions. The details relayed to Reuters from the Information Centre for Human Rights framed the dispute as one over "workplace adjustments" for newcomers. One concern had been sub-par wages.
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04/26, 8:00pm
Water, food, transportation major issues
Workers at the Foxconn factory in Jundiai, Brazil may go on strike beginning May 3rd if the company does not resolve "severe" issues involving poor-quality food, water shortages and overcrowding of transportation vehicles, according to a statement from the workers' union. Foxconn has been given 10 days to resolve the issues, which came up at a meeting between some 2,500 workers and company officials on Monday, reports local paper Jornal de Jundiai.
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04/19, 10:10am
Tracking expands to wider number of facilities
Apple has updated its monthly Supplier Responsibility report with data from March, claiming an improvement in suppliers following rules on excessive working hours. Suppliers are, officially, expected to demand no more than 60 hours a week per person. Compliance grew to 95 percent in March, up from 89 percent in February, and 84 percent in January.
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04/16, 9:55am
Claims 6 milllion units to be ready at launch
A so-called iPad mini will ship in the third quarter of the year as a "counter attack" to upcoming Windows tablets, a Chinese website claims. NetEase moreover reports that the smaller iPads will cost between $249 and $299, with 6 million units ready at launch. Two Asian manufacturers -- Hon Hai (Foxconn) and Pegatron -- will allegedly be responsible for production.
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04/13, 7:45pm
Foxconn stepped in instead, says analyst
On the heels of the news from last month that Foxconn had bought a 46.5 percent stake in Sharp's LCD business, analyst Brian White with Topeka Capital Markets say that Apple "debated" buying a share of Sharp itself. White says his information comes from a technology trade show he attended in China, and tells his investors that the story indicates that Sharp's IGZO technology has been deemed important for Apple's future plans.
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04/13, 2:45am
Avenue is near Brazilian Foxconn factory
The mayor of a Brazilian city in Sao Paulo where Foxconn has one of its few foreign factories has renamed one of its streets near the facility "Avenida Steve Jobs" in honor of the late co-founder of Apple. The factory in Jundiai is said to be producing new iPhone 4 and iPad 2 units, and CEO Tim Cook has said in public remarks that Brazil is an area of "major growth" for the company in the coming years.
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04/11, 9:30pm
Some new details emerge, iPad assembly seen
Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz, the man who uncovered the discrepancies in Mike Daisey's account of the lives of Foxconn workers, has posted a short YouTube video (seen below) with some of the footage from inside the Foxconn factory he visited. The video shows the steps of iPad construction, which reveal the introduction of some automation but confirm that the tablet is made largely by hand. The report offers a few new details as well.
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04/10, 4:45pm
Sharp looks to sell new shares of $4b Sakai plant
Japanese LCD panel maker Sharp revealed on Tuesday that it is negotiating with suppliers Toppan Printing and Dai Nippon Printing on the sale of new shares of its main LCD manufacturing plant in Sakai. Exactly how much money each will contribute and what their stake in the plant will be remains to be seen, however. Taiwan's Hon Hai has a majority 46.48 percent stake in the plant as of last month, which is said to be the country's most advanced LCD plant.
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04/09, 9:40am
Conflicts with story from Foxconn recruiter
The next-generation iPhone will ship in October, a report from South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper suggests. The paper has directly questioned the head of human resources at Foxconn's Taiyuan factory. "We just got the order. It [the iPhone launch] will be around October," the source claims. The person also backs up part of a Japanese report from late March, which observed that there were Foxconn hiring ads across Taiyuan. "Yes, it's true we are hiring a large number of workers," the Foxconn HR head says.
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04/08, 5:40pm
Media outlet gets rare live look at Foxconn plants
American Public Media's Marketplace has posted early details of a rare guided tour of a Foxconn factory. The only such tour outside of an earlier ABC visit, the visit by Mike Daisey exposé reporter Rob Schmitz included "unfettered" access. In first-hand talks with staffers, his initial impression was that many of the reports of underage workers and dangerous conditions were overstated, and that the truly common issues were management and pay.
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04/05, 11:15am
Attracting, retaining talent main concern
Apple's primary supplier, Hon Hai -- better known as Foxconn -- is "significantly" raising wages for Taiwanese workers, a Hon Hai spokesman tells the Wall Street Journal. The raise will take effect in July, and affect roughly 10,000 people at the company's headquarters, most of whom work on research and development, marketing, and business planning. The spokesman, Simon Hsing, says Hon Hai still hasn't decided on the exact size of the salary hike, but that the company wants to better attract and keep talent.
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04/02, 11:20pm
Foxconn Taiyuan slips iPhone plans
A recruiter for Foxconn's growing Taiyuan plant may have inadvertently spoiled some of Appe's 2012 iPhone plans. When interviewing with TV-Tokyo [past 6-minute mark], the staffer said the plant was explicitly hiring 18,000 workers "for the fifth-generation phone." He expected the phone to come out in June.
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03/29, 5:50pm
Promises shorter hours, better health and safety
The Fair Labor Association has announced the results of its investigation into labor problems at Apple's major manufacturing partner, Foxconn. The full probe is said to have taken almost a month, and found "excessive overtime and problems with overtime compensation; several health and safety risks; and crucial communication gaps that have led to a widespread sense of unsafe working conditions among workers," according to the FLA.
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03/29, 10:00am
Apple CEO likely eager to dispel labor concerns
Apple CEO Tim Cook has toured a new Foxconn production plant for the iPhone, company spokeswoman Carolyn Wu tells Bloomberg. The facility is based in Zhengzhou, China, and is said to employ about 120,000 people. Official photos show Cook and a Chinese entourage passing by some of the workers who manually assemble iPhone parts for up to 60 hours a week or more.
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03/27, 7:55am
Foxconn and Sharp make manufacturing pact
Foxconn under its Hon Hai Group name and Sharp have together struck a deal that will primarily help Sharp improve its performance. Sharp will agree to use more third-party parts in its manufacturing in return for Foxconn taking a 46.5 percent stake in Sharp's Sakai, Japan LCD plant, equaling Sharp's stake after including an existing seven percent Sony involvement. Both companies would share research work and form a "global" alliance that would let Sharp use Foxconn's production.
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03/26, 6:55pm
Says he lost grounding, will be more 'humble'
Finally admitting more candidly that he had "violated" the trust of his audiences and had "exaggerated my own experiences" in interviews with journalists, monologist Mike Daisey laid out a formal apology on his blog in a post titled "Some Thoughts After the Storm." The post recognizes that audiences felt misled by the blurring of truth and "truthiness," though he does not address whether the show will go on.
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03/24, 7:15pm
Foxconn may shift new iPhone to northern China
Foxconn's northern plant in Taiyuan, in China's northern Shanxi province, may become both a key hub of new iPhone production as well as a flashpoint for working condition issues. The China Times claimed that the factory was facing a "huge" shortage of about 20,000 workers as it got ready for the new model. Supposedly, it would make as many as 85 percent of orders, or about 57 million.
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03/22, 2:45pm
Foxconn succeeds despite rising costs
Foxconn International reported a return to profit for 2011. Although relatively slight, its $72.8 million was a sharp reversal from a $218.3 loss the year before. Officials credited the turnaround to a broader shift towards smartphones among its broader customers, including Huawei, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony, raising the overall money it made.
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03/19, 5:25pm
Daisey promises 'full accounting' of monologue
Foxconn won't sue over the retracted This American Life episode painting a grim portrait of working conditions at the company, according to spokesman Simon Hsing. "Our corporate image has been totally ruined. The point is whatever media that cited the program should not have reported it without confirming (with us)," Hsing tells Reuters, while adding that "We have no plans to take legal action...We hope nothing similar will happen again."
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03/18, 12:30pm
Daisey tones down Apple-Foxconn claims in show
Stage performer Mike Daisey following a show exposé has scaled back his show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, to be more accurate. He has dropped "anything he doesn't feel he can stand behind" from the story of his trip to Foxconn's main plant in Shenzhen, The Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis told the AP. A prologue also now exists that acknowledges This American Life's criticism and frames it as a story with core truths, but as a performance and not absolute fact.
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03/16, 2:15pm
This American Life says Daisey story wrong
(Update: details) A popular documentary radio show that airs on most National Public Radio (NPR) stations, This American Life, has taken the rare step of not just retracting its story on Foxconn's working conditions, but devoting an entire episode to the correction. Its earlier episode, "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Factory," was said by the production company to have been "partially fabricated." Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz, a figure in the new "Retraction" episode, believed that "much" of Daisey's story had problems.
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03/13, 1:30pm
May be response to public criticisms
Foxconn is hiring for several safety and "lifestyle" positions involving one of two Chinese units that supplies Apple, says Bloomberg. In particular the company's Integrated Digital Products Business Group is advertising in Shenzhen for a safety and security officer, a lifestyle services manager, and two fire chiefs. The chairman of Foxconn's retail division, Louis Woo, has refused to provide any more details beyond the positions' existence.
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03/07, 8:30am
China labor minister may clamp down on standards
China labor minister Yin Weimin in statements to the media hinted the government might crack down on labor abuse issues at companies like Foxconn. He noted with Reuters in earshot that some unnamed foreign companies, while usually law-abiding, were guilty of mandating too much overtime, underpaying, and a "lack of concern for people." Officials would "step up guidance" and more tightly monitor what was happening, although he wasn't specific on a course of action.
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03/05, 7:35pm
Automated machines expected to replace workers
Apple supplier Foxconn is reportedly adding X-ray inspection machinery to its Chinese factories, where the iPad 3 is rumored to be in production. The automated system utilizes X-rays to quickly inspect solder joints on printed circuit boards, discovering defects through software algorithms rather than relying on workers for manual inspection.
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03/02, 2:45pm
Apple tries to tout job benefit to US
Apple has reacted to concerns that it was offshoring too many jobs with a new Job Creation promo page on Friday. The iPhone maker contended that a total of 514,000 jobs were either directly created by Apple or depended heavily on it for support. While only 47,000 were core Apple employees, many of them retail, it believed 257,000 in various industries had jobs that depended significantly on Apple and another 210,000 in the iOS "app economy."
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02/24, 5:00pm
High pricing still unchanged
Apple has begun selling Brazilian-made 8GB iPhone 4s in that country, reports say. Previously all iPhone 4 models were made in China, but units are now rolling off of Foxconn's Brazilian assembly lines. The switchover is actually believed to have happened several weeks ago, but gone largely unnoticed. At Apple's regional online store, the Brazilian-made black and white models are listed as MD128BR/A and MD198BR/A, respectively. Earlier Chinese-made equivalents for the area bore MD128BZ/A and MD198BZ/A identifiers.
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02/23, 11:10am
Activist group continues 'ethical iPhone' theme
Activist organization SumOfUs is planning to protest supplier working conditions at Apple's annual shareholder meeting, being held today at the company's Cupertino headquarters, according to a press release. Demonstrators will rally outside of the event, while inside, two different actions are planned. SumOfUs says it will first deliver petitions demanding an "ethical iPhone;" during the event's Q&A session, the group says it will ask Apple CEO Tim Cook to end labor abuses in its supply chain.
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02/23, 1:30am
Apple, Foxconn clarify, correct minor points
ABC's recent Nightline story that showed exactly how Apple's iOS devices are put together in factories in China revealed little that was unknown to tech-savvy viewers, and was generally perceived as even-handed and non-sensationalistic in showing the plusses and minuses for workers. The network has since, however, appended some comments from Apple, Foxconn and the Fair Labor Association on minor points in the report.
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02/22, 11:00am
Workers reassigned, given unusual privileges
Underage Foxconn workers were transferred to other departments or not scheduled to work overtime in advance of inspections by the Fair Labor Association, an activist group tells AppleInsider. Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior project officer Debby Sze Wan Chan says that last week, she heard from two Foxconn workers in Zhenghou who said the company prepared itself before the FLA arrived. "All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments," Chan claims.
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02/21, 9:50am
Only two suppliers to be checked so far
Apple is telling activists in the US and China that it will soon permit independent environmental reviews of at least two Chinese suppliers, according to USA Today. Prominent Chinese activist Ma Jun, the founder of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, tells the paper that Apple agreed to the reviews in late January. The move is said to have been made in response to two reports by the IPE and other environmental groups, showing toxic chemical use and hazardous waste leaks at companies thought to be Apple suppliers. Apple rarely acknowledges which companies are a part of its supply chain.
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02/20, 9:45am
Special may have conflict of interest
ABC is now teasing its upcoming special on Foxconn, which airs on Nightline Tuesday at 11:35PM Eastern/Pacific time. Called iFactory: Inside Apple, the special claims to show how Apple products are made at Foxconn's major campus in Shenzhen, China. It comes in response to renewed criticism of working conditions at Apple suppliers, which in the case of Foxconn have included complaints like low pay, extreme hours, and debatable safety; a number of Foxconn workers have thrown themselves from buildings in the past couple of years.
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02/18, 5:15am
ABC's Nightline gets special access to Apple ops
The ABC TV network has announced that it will be screening a special edition of Nightline next week focusing on working conditions in Apple’s supply chain. The network received special permission from Apple, giving it rare media access to the inner workings of where Apple’s products are made. Network anchor Bill Weir took a film crew with him into factories on Shenzhen China, claiming that he is the first journalist to ever get a look inside.
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02/17, 6:10pm
Apple auditor FLA says Foxconn needs to be fixed
Fair Labor Association chief Auret van Heerden updated his opinions in a conversation on Friday that signaled possibly drastic action ahead. In talking to Bloomberg, he partly rescinded an earlier warm reaction and said the group was "finding tons of issues" at the contract manufacturer. He wouldn't say what these were, but he anticipated "very significant announcements" soon.
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02/17, 1:30pm
Amazon Kindle Fire spring update may be very cheap
Amazon may be hoping to shave even more costs on its possible spring Kindle Fire follow-up. Rumors Friday from suppliers given to China Times had it hand-picking which individual contractors it would use instead of giving a blanket deal with Quanta for the original. One of the new entrants might be contract manufacturing giant Foxconn (Hon Hai).
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02/17, 10:15am
Foxconn institutes third recent pay raise
Foxconn on Friday significantly raised pay for its floor workers in China for the third time in about one and a half years. An entry-level factory worker in Foxconn's main facilities at Shenzhen would now get between 16 to 25 percent more pay per month depending on whether or not the person passed a technical test. The pay would be equivalent to 1,800 yuan ($286) base or 2,200 yuan ($349) with the certification.
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02/16, 4:50pm
Accuses FLA of incentives to approve Foxconn
Activist group SumOfUs has issued a statement criticizing the president of the Fair Labor Association, Auret van Heerden, for initially approving of Foxconn factory conditions. Even though the FLA is just beginning its study, based on early tours, van Heerden has already claimed that Foxconn plants are "first-class" with conditions "way, way above average of the norm." A finished FLA report is only due in early March.
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02/15, 12:45pm
Suggests boredom, alienation led to suicides
The president of the Fair Labor Association, Auret van Heerden, is already suggesting that conditions at Foxconn facilities are better than those in many other factories in the country, according to Reuters. The FLA is just beginning a study of Apple's top eight suppliers in China, of which Foxconn is the company's main manufacturing partner. After his initial visits to Foxconn, van Heerden is claiming that "The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm."
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02/14, 12:00am
Fair Labor Association will inspect facilities
Pegatron, a Taiwan-based manufacturer that helps makes Apple's iPhones as well as numerous electronics for other companies, said it had not been informed of any pending inspections of factory work conditions prior to announcements from Apple and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) that it would audit Pegatron and Quanta Computer this spring. The statement by Apple also confirmed that FLA inspections have already begun for its principle supplier Foxconn.
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02/13, 9:55am
Apple volunteers for wide audits of factories
Apple on Monday took the step of asking the Fair Labor Association to orchestrate "special voluntary audits" of its last-stage suppliers. The investigations, which include Foxconn plants in Chengdu and Shenzhen, began the same day. They include both interviews with "thousands" of workers over conditions as well as inspections and document reviews.
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02/09, 4:55pm
New York City action gets high publiclity
As promised, activists representing Change.org and SumOfUs delivered petitions to Apple Stores in New York City, Washington, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore on Thursday, according to AdAge. About 199,000 Change.org signatures were recorded, with another 57,000 from SumOfUs. In both cases, the groups are asking for Apple to come up with a way of reducing worker exploitation at Chinese suppliers like Foxconn.
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02/08, 1:25pm
Chinese supplier standards at stake
Over 250,000 signatures from petitions on Change.org and SumOfUs.org will be delivered to New York City's Grand Central Apple Store on Thursday morning, according to an announcement. The effort is part of a campaign to push Apple to develop a "worker protection strategy," in light of stories of poor labor conditions at Chinese Apple suppliers like Foxconn. Employees are known to often work extreme amount of overtime for little pay, sometimes in dangerous conditions.
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02/06, 12:05pm
Company uses 'men as machines,' person complains
Foxconn treats "men as machines," according to a worker newly interviewed by CNN. The woman is identified an 18-year-old student from a village near the southern city of Chongqing, using the pseudonym "Chen" because she says Foxconn tells workers not to talk to reporters or else "criminal liability shall be investigated according to law." Because she was a college student with no work experience, Chen says she was eager to take a one-month position at Foxconn during the Spring Festival, having been promised things like good benefits and little overtime.
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01/31, 2:20pm
Five factories in works for Brazil
(Updated with denial of Brazilian plans) Foxconn is planning to build five extra factories in Brazil, according to São Paulo's Secretary of Planning and Development of the State, Julio Semeghini. Each is expected to be manned by about 1,000 workers, and produce iPads, notebooks, and general electronics. The actual locations of the factories have yet to be decided, although São Paulo is claimed to be campaigning heavily.
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01/31, 1:30am
Speculation on metal body for 2012 model
Higher-than-expected sales of the iPhone 4S along with rumors of an all-metal body for the next iPhone has sent shares of Foxconn Technology Company to their highest level in more than five months on the Taipei stock exchange, BusinessWeek reports. Although the company makes nearly 50 percent of all the world's high-tech electronics, its fortunes are closely tied to the status of its best-known customer, Apple. The stock closed the day at NT$101.50 (approximately $3.44 US) a rise of about six percent.
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01/29, 5:15am
BSR partly corrects look into Apple supply chain
Corporate responsibility consultant firm Businesses for Social Responsibility (BSR) has published an open letter partly correcting the New York Times on its investigation of Foxconn factories. CEO Aron Cramer didn't object to the core of the article, which highlighted the problems Apple and others would have in improving supply chain work conditions, but did object to how it portrayed BSR. A BSR consultant was quoted several times but wasn't representing the whole company when he did, Cramer said.
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