More than 1000 workers in India protest, Foxconn India factory shuts down again, US company spends 12.9 billion to evacuate, where will shielding cloth go in overseas markets

1. More than 1000 workers in India protest, Foxconn India factory shuts down again, US company spends 12.9 billion to evacuate

In recent years, Indian manufacturing has been challenging China's manufacturing position, and India has also attracted many foreign companies to build factories and develop with its own advantages, including the world's first generation factory Foxconn. However, now it can be seen that Terry Gou's decision has brought a considerable blow to Foxconn.

On December 30, 2021, more than 1000 employees of Foxconn held a large-scale protest at its Indian factory. The main reason for the public protest by Indian workers was that hundreds of Indian workers had suffered from food poisoning, which they believed was intentional by Foxconn to provide spoiled food to harm them.

According to relevant information, although the Indian workers only protested for a few hours, it also had a significant impact on Foxconn. Currently, Foxconn's Indian factory has once again shut down for five days.

In fact, this is not the first large-scale protest by Indian workers. As early as December 2020, they began smashing various equipment in the factory due to dissatisfaction with the salary provided by Wistron. This large-scale protest directly caused Wistron to lose 380 million yuan.

With the lessons learned from the past, Foxconn dare not act rashly this time, fearing more losses. In the absence of provoking Indian workers, they can only choose to temporarily suspend work to avoid it, which is a situation that Terry Gou never expected.

At first, Terry Gou transferred some of Foxconn's production lines in China to India, mainly because of its labor cost advantage. However, it was not until he arrived in India that he found out that Indian workers did not have the habit of working overtime and would protest on a large scale at the slightest inconvenience.

This has led to low production efficiency in Foxconn's factories in India, and coupled with the impact of public health incidents, due to the serious situation in India, Foxconn has already carried out a large-scale shutdown, which has resulted in a sudden reduction of Apple's smartphone shipments by half.

In fact, it is not just Chinese companies that have suffered losses in India. Ford Motor Company, a century old American company, announced its official withdrawal from the Indian market in September 2021. Even though a full withdrawal would cost 12.9 billion yuan, the American company Ford did not change its final decision and chose to withdraw.

In fact, the reason why Ford Motor Company made such a decision is partly due to the low work efficiency of Indian workers, who are usually lazy and prone to strikes and protests. Another important reason is that there is a huge wealth gap in India, with too many poor people, making it difficult for Ford to bring actual benefits.

In India, over 200 million people hold the local minimum wage, and it is evident that this group of people has relatively weak purchasing power. Although American company Ford brought advanced technology to India after entering, India's domestic manufacturing technology has not kept up, and many raw materials still need to be imported.

In this context, American company Ford has not only failed to generate substantial revenue from its demographic dividend in India in recent years, but even suffered losses of billions. Even though Ford is a representative of the automotive industry, it is bound to be unable to accept this continuous loss situation, and it is expected that they will ultimately choose to completely leave.

Previously, when a large number of companies began to develop in India, experts predicted that India may surpass China and become the world's largest factory in the future, as India has advantages in cheap labor and market potential.

From the current situation, it can be seen that India still faces considerable difficulties in challenging China's position in manufacturing, especially during public health emergencies. The situation in India is widely known, and large-scale shutdowns have caused significant losses to any factory.

And the gradual departure of these foreign companies will not only cause a large number of Indian workers to lose their jobs, but more importantly, India will also lose its assistance in technology. In order to change the situation, India has also invested 22.6 billion this year to support the development of various industries. However, in this situation, some companies are still leaving one after another.

Even though India actively approached Musk during this period, hoping that he could bring Tesla to India to build a factory, promote the development of the Indian automotive industry, improve production technology, and perfect the industrial chain, due to the high tariffs in India, the two sides ultimately did not reach a consensus.

So overall, there are still some problems in the development process of Indian manufacturing. Do you think it is possible for it to surpass the strength of Chinese manufacturing in the future?