According to Tang Due Bang, International Relations Manager of Luxshare, who spoke with representatives of AppleInsider, this summer, Apple representatives visited the Luxshare plant in Bakjiang to see the pace of construction of new capacities of their partner in Vietnam and evaluate the possibility of producing smartphones here. iPhone. They also checked that the firm had the investment capital needed to start assembling the iPhone and the living conditions of its workers.

According to Bang, after Apple’s request in December 2019 to expand production of AirPods headphones, Luxshare built a new plant on an area of ​​about 30 hectares in 5 months. As a result, Luxshare’s investment in Bakzyang province reached $ 270 million. Luxshare currently has 28,000 employees but may need to expand to 50,000-60,000 if the company is approved to manufacture the iPhone.

Meanwhile, some of the facilities still do not meet Apple’s requirements, in particular, it concerns dormitories for employees. It is unclear exactly what requirements Luxshare has not met, but it seems that this is the main reason why Apple is in no hurry to issue permission for the production of smartphones.

By the way, Luxshare plans to release the iPhone in China. It recently acquired an iPhone plant in China from Wistron for about $ 472 million.