Apple is finding it increasingly difficult to manufacture its products in China. Large protests erupted at China’s largest iPhone manufacturing plant on Wednesday. This factory is the property of the Taiwanese subcontractor Foxconn.
It is located in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, in the center of the country.
Videos and photos posted on the social networks Weibo and Twitter testify to these facts, reported by AFP. The images notably show a crowd of employees marching down a street in the face of riot police.
Containment that continues
In early November, the Chinese authorities had decreed the containment of the area around the factory, after the discovery of an outbreak of Covid-19 cases.
Foxconn has been confronted in recent months with an increase in cases of Covid-19 on this huge site, which employs more than 200,000 employees, most often hosted on site. Foxconn had decided to confine the site with the workers inside. But hundreds of panicked workers had fled on foot a few weeks ago.
Yesterday’s demonstration seems linked to this strict containment policy of the company and the Chinese authorities.
Apple will produce 2 to 3 million fewer iPhones this quarter
The situation is affecting shipments of the iPhone 14 Pro. Apple assures that these deliveries will be “lower than anticipated”, with a delay of four to five weeks.
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.