The consequences of the hard confinements still in force in China have an impact on deliveries of the iPhone 14 Pro. Apple assures that these deliveries will be “lower than anticipated” in the coming weeks. And 4-5 weeks late.
The reason ? The confinement of a Chinese factory continues, which slows down the production of the latest iPhones. The factory is located according to AFP in the city of Zhengzhou, in central China.
Located 600 km from Beijing, Zhengzhou (10 million inhabitants) employs up to 200,000 people who live there year-round, in “iPhone City”, a kind of city within the city.
New health measures for its employees
This site belongs to the Taiwanese group Foxconn, Apple’s main subcontractor. Foxconn is the largest private sector employer in China, with more than one million people working in about 30 factories in the country.
Foxconn has announced that it expects results to be worse than expected for the end of the year. They are to be released this Thursday.
Foxconn has also specified the implementation of new measures for its employees, in particular a “sanitary bubble” between the dormitories and the factory. Measures that caused the flight of hundreds of employees from the production site.
More than 80 million iPhones to be produced
According to calculations by the specialized firm TrendForce, Apple will produce 2 to 3 million fewer iPhones this quarter due to the epidemic rebound in Zhengzhou. The target is estimated at more than 80 million.
Apple currently has more than 90% of its products manufactured in China. And this situation of slowdown in deliveries has persisted for two years.