Gou Tai-ming, also known as Terry Gou, chairman and founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., trading as Foxconn Technology Group, expressed confidence Sunday, Jan. 31, that he will win a bid for Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp., the Global Times reported.
According to news portal sina.com.cn, Gou made the remarks during an event in Taipei as Sharp is set to make a decision on Foxconn's offer soon.
A Wall Street Journal report said Friday, Jan. 29, that the company has raised its bid for Sharp to $5.45 billion. Media reports said that the company does not seek to buy out Sharp's shareholders, instead it will inject 389 billion yen ($3.21 billion) into the Japanese company in exchange for new shares.
Although the company failed to meet its annual revenue target, Gou said during the event that Foxconn's net profit grew 10 percent because of automation.
Chia-Peng Day, general manager of the company's automation technology development committee, told the Global Times in July 2015 that Foxconn had decided in recent years to pursue automation to cut labor costs and boost its manufacturing process.
Day said that the company resorted to using automated machinery to free workers from simple but repetitive work.
In July 2005, the South China Morning Post reported that the Taiwan-based electronics giant has been developing industrial robots as it aims to achieve 30 percent automation at its factories in the Chinese mainland by 2020.
Gou also said in May last year that Foxconn is aiming to develop 10 to 12 facilities in India, including factories and data centers, by 2020, as part of its international expansion plan.
"A lot of our customers, especially Chinese customers, need us to manufacture . . . in India, to make phones, tablets, TVs, as soon as possible," Gou said in an interview.
The report said that the move comes as the company is struggling with rising expenses at its 25 manufacturing sites in China, where wages have more than doubled since 2010.