Production of Apple Inc’s iPhones could slump by as much as 30 percent at one of the world’s biggest factories next month due to tightening COVID-19 curbs in China, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is working to boost production at another factory in Shenzhen to make up for the shortfall, said the person, declining to be identified as the information was private.
Its main Zhengzhou plant in Henan Province, which employs about 200,000 people, has been rocked by discontent over stringent measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, with several workers fleeing the site over the weekend.
Photo: AP / Hangpai Xingyang
The possible effect on production comes amid a usually busy time for electronics makers ahead of the year-end holiday season, which is also a prime time for vendors such as Apple.
Foxconn on Sunday said it was bringing the situation under control and would coordinate back-up production with other plants to reduce any potential effects. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
A second person familiar with the situation said many workers remained at the Zhengzhou plant and that production was continuing.
Photo: AFP
Under China’s strict COVID-19 policies, localities must act swiftly to quell outbreaks, with measures including full-scale lockdowns.
Factories in affected areas are often allowed to stay open on condition they operate under a “closed loop” system where staff live and work on-site.
Businesses have said such arrangements pose numerous difficulties.
Foxconn on Oct. 19 banned dining at canteens at the Zhengzhou plant and required workers to eat meals in dormitories.
It said production was normal.
The measures led to people who said they worked at the site venting frustration about their treatment and provisions via social media.
Scores fled the site over the weekend, with photographs and videos on social media purporting to show Foxconn staff trekking across fields in daytime and along roads at night.
Foxconn has not disclosed whether any workers at the Zhengzhou site had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Authorities have since Oct. 19 reported 264 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in Zhengzhou.
New cases in China hit 2,898 on Sunday, topping 2,000 for a second straight day, a tiny number by global standards.
Rising case numbers from numerous outbreaks across China have prompted a tightening of local curbs and lockdowns, including in parts of big cities such as the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, where the number of new locally transmitted cases totaled 1,110 from Monday last week to Sunday, up from 402 over the previous seven days.
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