RPT-Foxconn shifting Czech production for expansion

                                
 (Repeats story published late on Tuesday)
                                
 PRAGUE, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Taiwanese Foxconn's <2038.HK>
plans to move Acer <2353.TW> computer production to Hungary from
the Czech Republic is for expansion reasons, the company said on
Tuesday, quashing fears it was cutting back its Czech business.
                                
 Hungarian media reported on Monday that Foxconn, the Czech
Republic's second largest exporter, would shift Acer PC
production to Hungary. This raised concerns Foxconn would become
the first major investor to move production out of the country
due to growing costs and the strong crown currency.
                                
 However, Felix Chen, a site administrator for Foxconn, said
the move was to make room for further expansion in the Czech
Republic, and that all affected employees had already been
shifted to other business units.
                                
 "Due to continuing expansion of our businesses, we have
acquired a factory in Hungary and decided to move Acer-related
activities over in order to make room for additional businesses
into the Czech Republic," Chen said in an email.
                                
 He declined to say how large the Acer operations in the
country were, nor what new business could be located in the
Czech Republic.
                                
 Foxconn, a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry <2317.TW>, is
the third-largest company by revenue in the Czech Republic,
earning 89.5 billion crowns ($5.47 billion) in 2007, the vast
majority of that from exports. 
                                
 The contract manufacturer employs 7,000 workers at two
production sites in the central Czech towns of Pardubice and
Kutna Hora.
                                
 The pullout of a company as large as Foxconn would be a blow
to the small, open Czech economy, where exports make up around
70 percent of gross domestic product. Foxconn accounted for 3.5
percent of the value of all goods sent abroad last year.
                                
 The country of 10.4 million has seen economic expansion of
more than 6 percent annually in the past three years.
                                
 But growth is easing this year on the back of slowing demand
from the euro zone, the country's main trade partner, and the
crown <EURCZK=> <CZK=>, which is trading off record highs hit in
July at levels that producers say are hitting their margins by
making their goods less attractive to foreign buyers.
                                
 An August survey showed nearly 30 percent of 426
manufacturing and service sector companies polled were
considering cutting jobs and moving operations abroad due to the
strong currency.
 (Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)