Apple’s largest iPhone assembler, Foxconn, has received approval from the Chinese government to restart production at a key plant in China after being forced to shut it following the coronavirus outbreak. Currently, only 10% of the factory’s workforce has managed to return so far, a source told Reuters.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, got the green light to restart production in the eastern central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, said the person with direct knowledge of the matter. The company, however, has not yet been allowed to restart production in Shenzhen, a southern manufacturing hub, the source said.
The two factories together make up the bulk of Foxconn’s assembly lines for Apple’s (AAPL.O) iPhones, and the delays are likely to impact global shipments.
Market research firm Trendforce on Monday cut its March-quarter forecast for iPhone production by about 10% to 41 million handsets.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, the potential exists for Apple’s stock to get hammered while these Foxconn and other plant restarts drag on in China. Hopefully, for the lives impacted and all of the less important ancillaries like commerce and the economy, we can get a handle on this outbreak sooner than later. 10% of the workforce is better than none!
China is disaster zone unlike anything seen in recent history. HUGE swaths of the country are in complete lockdown, basic infrastructure operations are at risk. Imagine if Chicago, New York, Denver and LA shut down for A MONTH. Who will operate the power, water and sewage treatment plants? Who will drive the trucks to deliver food to MILLIONS of people? Who will run the ports to accept shipments of raw materials from around the world? They are in mandatory lockdown. China is at a near standstill. If police catch you with a fever, they will forcefully take you to an overcrowded, understaffed, undersupplied “hospital”; at gunpoint, if necessary. Foxconn and any other factory making non-essential items is the least of their worries.
This is the risk you face when you export US jobs abroad. President Trump wanted Apple to move manufactuuring back to USA. Tim Cook should have listened.
Lives are at stake and yet people are worried that they might not get their new iPhones or some other Apple product on time. It seems a bit selfish. Apple isn’t going to go out of business that easily. Sure, the stock price will drop, but that’s about it. Are the employees who aren’t going to work at Apple getting paid? If the virus was where I lived, I certainly wouldn’t be going outside if I didn’t have to. No point in getting infected just to work on a production line. If I get sick, I could die and I don’t willingly want to take that risk so I don’t expect those people in China to take that same risk.