Production is restarted in “iPhone City”. The Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China, has been operating near normal production for the past few days, as reported by several sources quoted by Bloomberg. A resumption of normal activity after several months of difficulties against the backdrop of a strict zero Covid policy and worker revolt.
“Production has almost fully resumed”
Apple’s largest production plant has delivered 90% of its scheduled shipments as of December 30, Foxconn executive Vic Wang told the official daily. Henan Daily. This figure corresponds to the manufacturing capacity of the factory in normal times. “Production has almost fully resumed. At the moment, order books look good, and orders will peak from now until a few months after Chinese New Year. [22 janvier]”would have assured the leader to CNN.
A second internal source at the company, relayed by Reuters, confirms the resumption of production. Plant officials would however remain vigilant with the epidemic resumption linked to Covid-19 in the country. Since December 7, China no longer applies restrictions or sanitary confinement. A 180° change in the policy to fight the virus which is causing a historic surge in new cases of Covid. Currently, 200,000 people are said to be working in Zhengzhou, and the supply chain will be stabilized for some time.
Apple diversifies its production
Foxconn had promised in December to restore nominal production between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. A tight schedule constrained by the difficulties of recent months in the factory city. Between September and November, the strict health policy imposed by Beijing had considerably slowed down iPhone production. A drop accentuated at the beginning of December by a revolt of the workers against the backdrop of unpaid salary bonuses. As a direct result, the wait time for the latest iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max in the United States has reached 34 days before the Christmas holidays, according to a report from UBS.
These difficulties in production led Apple to accelerate the diversification of its production. The Cupertino company is beginning to establish itself in India, Vietnam and Brazil. As soon as the iPhone 14 was released, the country of Gandhi was chosen by the Apple brand to host part of the production of the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. The country would now be able to “produce iPhone 14 almost simultaneously with Chinese factories”according to experts at Counterpoint Research.