In a statement to the Taipei stock exchange, Taiwan’s Foxconn on Thursday refuted recent Reuters reports on its plans to restart factories in China were not factual. Foxconn did not elaborate on its production resumption timeline.
“Recently, Reuters reports on the group’s overall resumption schedule for the mainland China plants are not factual, and Hon Hai hereby clarifies it,” Foxconn said in the statement.
“In the past, the aforementioned media’s reports related to the group’s mainland China plants resumption are mostly not factual,” it said, adding that the reports have caused “misunderstandings and difficulties for employees, investors and the general public.”
Reuters previously cited a source in their report that Foxconn planned to resume 50% of production output in virus-hit China by end of February, as the major Apple-supplier reopened plants shut over the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak. The report further stated that Foxconn aimed “to resume 80% of production in China in March, added the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, citing internal targets set by Chairman Liu Young-Way”
MacDailyNews Take: Back to a state of flux we go!
It is quite possible that the timeline put forth by Reuters is the internal plan for Foxconn, but Foxconn does not want to set external expectations such that if circumstances beyond Foxconn’s control cause it to miss those goals everyone external to Foxconn goes completely bonkers. It’s simple expectation management.