Fujikura Eyes Offshore Plants for Wire Harness, Flexible Printed Circuit

Fujikura studies to build new offshore plant for automotive wiring harness and flexible printed circuit. The firm could build new plant around Da-nang, Vietnam to make wiring harness though the firm now has Vietnamese partner for the OEM. The firm could build new plant in Laos to process flexible printed circuit when the Thai plant has limited potentiality for further expansion. Fujikura has automotive wiring harness plants in Japan, China, North America and Europe. The firm considers potential Vietnamese plant to avoid increasing Chinese labor cost for the labor intensive operation. The firm tries to increase the offshore production rate by shifting from Japanese plant to reduce the cost. The firm could build Laos plant to support Thai operation when the Thai plant with 10,000 of employees has limited chance for another expansion. The firm studies for potential new plant to assume downstream processes including plating, shaping and finishing.