In 2014, Nokia transferred its mobile phone business to Microsoft for more than US$7 billion. Nokia also abandoned the aforementioned factories in India, causing 15,000 Indian workers to lose their jobs.
In 2016, the Foxconn Group signed an agreement with the government of Tamil Nadu, India. Foxconn plans to restart the factory, but later the project progressed very slowly.
According to the Indian Economic Times website reported on March 5, Foxconn Group's efforts are getting some results. Earlier this year, Foxconn had purchased some of the mobile phone factory equipment.
A dispute that the Chennai mobile phone factory got into was that this factory owed a large amount of taxes to Tamil Nadu. According to reports, Foxconn and Tamil Nadu have entered the final stage of negotiations on this issue, but It is not clear when the agreement can be signed.
An Indian senior official stated that Foxconn Group is now very urgently restarting this giant mobile phone factory.
In India, Foxconn currently owns a mobile phone manufacturing base in Seri, Andhra Pradesh. It employs a total of 6,000 people and manufactures mobile phones for brands such as Xiaomi, Jinli, and Nokia. (Nokia’s brand operator today is Finnish HMD).
In recent years, Chinese smartphones represented by Xiaomi have been welcomed by consumers in India. In the fourth quarter of last year, Xiaomi surpassed Samsung Electronics as the leader of the Indian mobile phone market. In the top five markets, four are Chinese companies.
China's mobile phone brand in India's siege has also activated Foxconn's mobile phone OEM business. According to reports, by the end of 2018, Foxconn's mobile phone manufacturing capacity in India had doubled to 30 million.
At present, some Foxconn subsidiaries are looking for suitable locations in India to expand their factories.
If the Foxconn Group can prompt the relaunch of the Nokia Chennai plant, it will help it expand its mobile phone production capacity.
In addition, in 2016, Foxconn and Maharashtra signed an agreement, Foxconn committed to invest 5 billion US dollars to build electronic manufacturing bases, but Indian officials recently complained that Foxconn did not honor its investment commitments.