Employee Found Dead Outside Foxconn's Hon Hai Precision Factory in China

A 22-year-old male employee of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co was found dead outside the company's manufacturing campus in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, the company said on Tuesday.

The cause of Sunday's death was not immediately known, the company said in a statement, adding that it was working with all relevant authorities on the matter.

Hon Hai is the flagship of the world's biggest electronics component maker, Foxconn Technology Group. It makes parts for Apple Inc's iPhone, iPads and laptops, as well as computers and servers for Hewlett-Packard Co and Cisco Systems Inc.

It is looking to expand beyond China, where its massive production base has come under fire from international labour groups after a series of suicides and accidents since 2010.

As part of those plans, Foxconn has said it will decide in October whether to proceed with a planned $1-billion manufacturing project in Indonesia after a new government takes office.

As smartphone sales peak and prices begin to fall, the company has started to shift towards a more consumer-facing business model.

Hon Hai plans to build applications for Internet browser Firefox from Mozilla and has won a license to operate Taiwan's next-generation mobile spectrum.

But for now, making companies' branded goods accounts for about 80 percent of revenue, analysts estimate. The firm plans to begin mass production of Apple's next generation iPhone this month, Taiwan media have reported.

The company plans to add 15,000 new employees to its staff of more than 1 million this year in one of the biggest yearly recruitment campaigns in its history.

© Thomson Reuters 2014