Millions of robot plans can save Foxconn

Foxconn International announced its 2012 full-year results on the evening of the 21st. As the volume of large customer orders decreased, the company’s net loss in 2012 was 316.4 million US dollars. This is the largest loss since Foxconn International’s listing in 2005. The last loss occurred in 2010, which was US$ 218.3 million. At present, Foxconn is still reducing the number of employees. As of December 31, 2012, the total number of employees in the group was 700,51, compared with 98,868 in 2011, a decrease of around 30% year-on-year.

In contrast, Foxconn’s labor costs have not been significantly reduced. The financial report shows that Foxconn’s staff costs totaled US$462 million in 2012, compared with US$533 million in the same period of last year, which was a decrease of only 13% year-on-year. According to the Reporter’s reporter, Foxconn’s factories in mainland China have already made several pay raises, and Foxconn is also suffering from rising manpower costs.

In fact, while Foxconn has cut its number of employees, it has also suspended recruitment at many places earlier this year. In the eyes of the outside world, the "reduction of staff" may be related to Foxconn's "million-bot robot" strategy. Foxconn President Terry Gou previously said that he hopes to assemble 1 million arms by 2014, to see the first fully automated factories within five to ten years, and to eliminate simple and repetitive processes through automation within a few years.

In Jincheng, Shanxi, Foxconn’s robotics project has been fully launched. Gou said that in 2016, the output value of Foxconn in Shanxi Jincheng, which is positioned as a production base for intelligent robots, could exceed 50 billion yuan.

At the same time of publishing the financial report, Foxconn International also announced that it plans to change the company name to “Fu Zhi Kang Group” to avoid confusion with the unlisted parent company Foxconn Technology Group. The plan still has to be approved by the relevant company of the Cayman Islands where the company's shareholders and company are registered.