Foxconn Technology Group plans to open manufacturing facilities in Hainan

Faced with higher worker salaries in Southeast China, Foxconn Technology Group plans to open manufacturing facilities in Hainan and expand operations in Brazil, chairman Terry Gou said yesterday.

Foxconn will break ground in Hainan by the end of 2012, Gou said, adding that the world's largest contract electronics assembler sees the area as a potential manufacturing center. He said the company is seeking certain incentives on taxes and labor.

Gou also noted that while salaries in Brazil are higher than in China, the firm will continue its investments there. "We've just entered a deal with Hainan Airlines and they will eventually be our way of connecting our supply chain (from China to Brazil)," he said, according to reports.

The company also will likely hire "tens of thousands" of new employees in response to recent findings that its Chinese workers are exceeding national laws governing overtime.