Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn has said it will replace some of its workers in the next three years, replacing them with 1 million robots.
The company, most notably known for manufacturing iOS products among thousands of other devices, has 995,000 employees in the Chinese mainland, and another 200,000 elsewhere.
By replacing human workers with robots, the company will curb rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, says chairman Terry Gou (via xinhuanet).
Foxconn has been in the news in the past year due to a string of suicides by workers.
Average line workers at the factory make about 900 yuan ($140 USD) per month.
Result for: taiwan
LG Display has increased fears of rapid supply growth of LCD panels by announcing it is considering constructing a new LCD production line to meet demands. Manufacturers of LCD television products have been enjoying a healthy level of demand for LCD flat-screens, bolstered recently by Chinese holidays and sporting events like the Winter Olympics.
However, concerns are taking root in the industry that it may return to a state of oversupply as manufacturers beef up production to capitalize on the demand. Controlling supply is important for players in the industry to maintain profit margins for the technology.
“Although demand is strong, growing capacity will become increasingly burdensome for the industry,” said Jason Kang, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. “Supply is already growing and the growth will be faster next year.”
LG plans to begin operation of a separate production line in the first half of 2010, while Taiwanese rivals are increasing factory utilization. “We are considering increasing capacity because we have been unable to meet all client demand for some time,” said an LG Display spokesman. “But nothing has been decided yet.”
LG Display CFO James Jeong revealed to investors just last month that the company was meeting under 90 percent of orders received and that the situation was likely to continue for months.
Result for: taiwan
According to a report from Network World, the Xbox 360 Elite price cut that has hit the US and Europe could be hitting Asian nations tomorrow, as Microsoft has announced a press conference in Japan.
The conference was confirmed by Microsoft Hong Kong spokesperson Julie Leong. The price cut will slash the price of the 120 GB Elite model to about $305 USD in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
Although hardly an issue, Microsoft says they will remove the HDMI cable from the bundle, just like they did for the European version.
There was no word on Japan as of yet.
