Foxconn’s Brazil Plant Back On Track

Just two weeks ago it was reported that the relationship between Foxconn and Brazil regarding the proposed $12 billion production center there was on the rocks. Foxconn was making demands the government felt were overreaching, and negotiations were stalled.

Government officials and Foxconn representatives announced today that the plan was still underway, and the plant is ready to pump out iPhones. iPads will have to wait until December, which was the original deadline.

It’s likely that the potential for a complete do-over spooked investors, and both parties felt the need to kiss and make up, or at least publicize the parts of the deal that were definitely going through. “We haven’t finished the process, it’s moving ahead but there’s no date,” said Brazil’s Technology Minister, Aloizio Mercadante.

Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou assured reporters that the full amount discussed was still forthcoming (brackets Reuters’): “We will be still investing US$12 billion in a (few) years, maybe four years, maybe six years.” So the terms aren’t set for the money Foxconn will be bringing to the country, but the amount at least is more or less guaranteed.

How it will be split among the local contractors, sub-agencies, banks, and so on is probably the topic of heated discussion and bargaining right now, but for the purposes of the global community, the deal seems to be more or less done.