Less than 1 month after cutting off supply to Huawei, Flextronics Changsha plant stops production! Phase II project taken over by BYD

July 12, 2019 - According to a report by Caixin.com, "Since March 2019, the production of Flextronics' Changsha Phase I project has been in trouble, and the Flextronics Changsha plant has stopped production in May 2019." The main reason for the shutdown of Flextronics Changsha plant is affected by the "U.S. ban on Huawei", because Flextronics Changsha plant's main production capacity is for Huawei's cell phones.

According to the information, Flextronics was founded in 1969 in Silicon Valley, the United States, entered China in 1987, is the world's second largest electronics foundry after Foxconn. Currently, Flextronics has more than 100 factories in more than 30 countries and 200,000 employees. It currently has factories in Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Suzhou and Changsha. And Flextronics Changsha factory was just put into construction in 2018.

According to the business registration information, Flextronics Technology (Changsha) Co. was established on January 12, 2018, with a registered capital of $10 million, and is 100% owned by Flextronics Asia Investment Co.

According to the introduction, Flextronics Changsha Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park is in accordance with Industry 4.0 standards, hand in hand with Huawei *** with the creation of intelligent manufacturing production bases, the total investment of the project is 5 billion yuan, the main construction of cell phone intelligent terminals, intelligent terminals power supply, network and consumer electronic products production base.

According to Changsha's local media Sanxiang Metropolis Daily, the project*** will be constructed in three phases, with a planned production capacity of 150 million smart terminals and a new employment population of more than 30,000 people.

From April 17, 2018, the first phase of the project officially started, only 86 days, July 12, 2018, Wangcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, Flextronics project phase I plant was officially put into production. According to Core Intelligence, Flextronics Changsha Phase I plant now has 16 SMT production lines and 23 assembly lines formally put into operation, with about 5,000 production staff, and an average daily production capacity of about 60,000 units of cell phones, with a peak of up to 80,000 units.

The second phase of the project has also started construction in October 2018 and was officially delivered to Flextronics on April 30 this year. According to the internal staff of Wangcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, "the second phase of the project has now been basically built, and only needs to complete the remaining works such as the renovation of the staff dormitory".

Originally, the Changsha Flextronics project was going well, but since May 16th, when the US announced a "ban" on Huawei, Flextronics has suspended its cooperation with Huawei due to the need to comply with the US ban. And Flextronics Changsha project was originally built mainly to cooperate with Huawei's cell phone production. In this way, the first phase of the Changsha Flextronics project to stop production, the second and third phase of the project into stagnation is also inevitable.

At the end of May, Changsha Flextronics' internal employees posted on Baidu posting that the workload in the factory was much less, and there were no classes on weekends, and said, "I can't see any improvement in June, so it can be said that Flextronics' Changsha project is completely finished. In this case, the Changsha Flextronics plant should have been shut down in mid-June.

And before that, around May 20 this year, the industry also rumored that the Zhuhai Flextronics factory stopped OEM for Huawei cell phones, and the department of Campus HW (Huawei) project at the Zhuhai Flextronics PCBA South factory was put on a long vacation.

Additionally, in the previous Core Wisdom release "Flextronics stops OEM for Huawei! How big is the loss? An article in the netizen's message, a self-proclaimed Flextronics Ganzhou factory employees also said, "Our Ganzhou factory HW orders are also gone, the staff are on vacation, the departure of the departure, it is really the impact of the big, HUAWEI bull".

Obviously, with Huawei to interrupt the cooperation, Flextronics in the domestic Zhuhai, Ganzhou factories have been affected by a greater impact, and designed to serve Huawei cell phone built Flextronics Changsha project is naturally unable to escape the fate of the shutdown.

According to Caixin.com, BYD has taken over the second phase of the Flextronics project and has started recruiting employees. And industrial and commercial information shows that on June 11, 2019, Changsha BYD Electronics Company Limited was registered, and the registered place is exactly where Flextronics Phase II is located, that is, No. 9, Tengfei Road, Wangcheng Economic Development Zone, Changsha City. And after the previous Flextronics stopped cooperating with Huawei, as one of the main foundry of Huawei's cell phone, BYD is also a direct benefit.

▲What will happen to the first phase of Flextronics' project in Changsha (the empty land at the back is reserved for the third phase)

There's no word yet on what will happen to the first phase of Flextronics' project in Changsha. Although the first phase of the project has been shut down, there are still relevant Flextronics employees who are maintaining basic operations. According to Caixin, Lance Technology has expressed its willingness to take over the first phase of Flextronics to the government.

However, it should be noted that recently the U.S. Department of Commerce confirmed that it will fulfill the commitment made by President Trump to allow U.S. companies to provide Huawei with products and services that do not "jeopardize U.S. national security". Comparatively speaking, the cell phone OEM business belongs to a lower level of service, but the U.S. government may issue a permit to Flextronics, allowing it to continue to provide Huawei with cell phone OEM services. This also brings a ray of hope for Flextronics Changsha Phase I project.

But the question is, even if the U.S. government allows Flextronics to continue to work with Huawei, will Huawei be willing to continue to work with Flextronics as y as it did before?