Foxconn has told investors that it has the capacity to produce iPhones for the American market without using its Chinese facilities, potentially skirting possible US/China trade tariffs.
Tim Cook visiting a Foxconn plant in China
Specifically, a senior executive says that Foxconn can make enough iPhones to supply the entire US market and do so out in territories that would avoid incurring any US/China tariffs.
According to Bloomberg, Young Liu, semiconductor division chief at Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, was speaking at an investor briefing in Taipei.
"Twenty-five percent of our production capacity is outside of China," he said, "and we can help Apple respond to its needs in the US market. We have enough capacity to meet Apple's demand."
Liu confirmed that Apple has not requested such a move yet, nor did he detail which Foxconn facilities might be used after such a move. He was telling investors that Foxconn is able to move quickly and change its use of facilities in different countries to avoid such trade wars.
Foxconn has previously been investigating moving iPhone production to India and to Vietnam.
Bloomberg says that Liu gave Foxconn's decision to build a base in Wisconsin as an example of its worldwide production capability. That operation has been controversially delayed and changed but other company executives reportedly reaffirmed Foxconn's commitment to the US state.
It plans to hire up to 2,000 people by the end of 2020, though this is is substantially fewer than the 13,000 originally promised.