Foxconn Electronics, one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers, and Hewlett Packard, currently the world’s largest supplier of personal computers (PCs) on Tuesday confirmed that it would set up a plant in the Russian Federation. The new plant will manufacture PCs as well as liquid crystal displays (LCDs). The new plant will not only strengthen positions of Foxconn and HP on the market, but may revolutionize it as well.

The planned joint venture between HP and Foxconn is currently seeking for a location for its fab in Saint Petersburg industrial areas and is projected to start construction as early as this fall. The fab can be as large as 60 000 square meters and may employ up to 5 thousand of workers, according to some reports. It is claimed that the plant will manufacture PCs and LCDs, but it is possible that it may also build notebooks as well. The investments into the plant may reach $50 mollion.

Currently Foxconn has over 200 thousand employees worldwide, thus, adding another 5 thousand is hardly a big deal for the company that produces loads of various electronics and computing devices. Nevertheless, the intention to build a plant in Russia together with HP may have dramatic consequences both for the Russian PC market as well as the relations between current third-party partners with HP and Foxconn.

Foxconn produces a lot of components for HP’s rivals, such as Dell, whereas HP uses manufacturing capacities of Foxconn’s competitors. Given that the plant in Saint Petersburg will not only be able to produce cost-efficient displays and PCs for the domestic market, it may eventually serve Easter and Northern Europe markets too, something, which may upset  certain companies among those served by Foxconn Electronics using plants in mainland China.

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