Huawei To Start Building First European Factory In France (reuters.com) 35
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: China's Huawei will start building its mobile phone network equipment factory in France next year, a source familiar with the matter said, pressing ahead with its first plant in Europe even as some European governments curb the use of the firm's 5G gear. The company outlined plans for the factory with an initial investment of 200 million euros ($215.28 million) in 2020, but the roll-out was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the source said on Monday. The source did not give a timeline for when the factory in Brumath, near Strasbourg, will be up and running. A French government source said the site was expected to open in 2025. Further reading: 'How Washington Chased Huawei Out of Europe'
Don’t believe it until (Score:2)
I’m not even being critical of China here. That’s a separate conversation. Just that a France and China tie-up is gonna be like oil and water. I
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France loses more work days to strikes than any other country.
All the conflict doesn't seem to help the workers. France's per capita GDP is worse than Mississippi's.
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Maybe better to just agree that France and China are probably gonna be incompatible. Apples and oranges.
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My assignment, "open an office in Europe for legal compliance reasons". No other details provided. So I start by asking my EU business friends about different countries. I was given advice on costs and culture and so on about various countries but France was the only one I was told by several people not to use because of the labor issues, costs, and shitty attitude.
I ended up in Netherlands which was still a cultural shift but it did work out. UK was my second choice but was too expensive for where I wa
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France's per capita GDP is worse than Mississippi's.
Which is just another way of showing that per capita GDP is a terrible way of measuring quality of life.
I've driven through Mississippi. They're really poor.
Re: Don’t believe it until (Score:1)
But Mississippi has air that is actually breathable. And it doesn't smell like urine.
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That's the bad kind of immigrants, but native French are hardly better: stinky cheese, overrated sub-par wine, etc.
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https://www.thelocal.fr/201910... [thelocal.fr]
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Marseille is actually pretty bad, by the standards of poverty.
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Nobody living there has to deal with medical debt or school lunch debt though.
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"All the conflict doesn't seem to help the workers. France's per capita GDP is worse than Mississippi's"
What does Mississippi get for their productivity? On average, French men live longer than Mississippi WOMEN.
French workers have rights; MS workers have the right to be fired at any time.
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assembled by actual french people, actually roll off the line
Why would be phones assembled by people when they can be assembled by robots?
Weird (Score:3)
France is a very peculiar choice. Labour costs are extreme with very generous employment laws even by European standards. Foreign transplants do not have the best track record there. Most foreign investment in the European Community heads for The Czech Republic, Poland etc where labour is cheaper but an educated workforce and a business friendly environment exists.
I presume Huawei have been offered a very fat incentive by the Government to set up there but I very much doubt it will ever happen.
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France is a very peculiar choice. Labour costs are extreme with very generous employment laws even by European standards. Foreign transplants do not have the best track record there. Most foreign investment in the European Community heads for The Czech Republic, Poland etc where labour is cheaper but an educated workforce and a business friendly environment exists.
I presume Huawei have been offered a very fat incentive by the Government to set up there but I very much doubt it will ever happen.
Aside from the generous cheque from Macron, this is largely just playing lip service to the EU. Like similar antics with Foxconn and the US, nothing will get built and the company will just pocket the grant cash and spend it on lawyers to make sure they can't give any of it back.
In the absolute best case, it'll be a largely automated factory to slap together two parts of a pre-assembled phone so that cheap labour in India can do the work and they can put a "hashtag made in Europe" on the box.
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Huawei is worker owned so they will take a very different view of labour 'costs' than most Capitalist enterprises.
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> Huawei is worker owned so they will take a very different view of labour 'costs' than most Capitalist enterprises.
Thanks for that.
"Huawei: A Case Study of When Profit Sharing Works" - https://hbr.org/2015/09/huawei... [hbr.org]
"... less well known in the West is Chinese telecom giant Huawei, a private company owned by its employees. Founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, today it employs about 170,000 staff, including more than 40,000 non-Chinese (75% of employees outside China are local hires), and serves more than 3
Avoiding Huawei bans? (Score:2)
If they're manufacturing within the EU, doesn't that make it harder for an individual member state to ban their products?
Not sure why France. Maybe incentives as part of France's industrial policy, or France is seen as a useful ally in supporting Huawei within the EU? Maybe France is doing a reverse China thing and using it to learn how to manufacture these things ;)
Pick your spying (Score:2)
So they think it's better to be spied on by China than by the US. Same leaks but less detrimental actions taken against them, at least for now. Just don't share sensitive info with France.
Huge mistake (Score:2)