This is due to the cautious order China passed last week, after observing a rise in COVID-19 in the city. Foxconn didn’t mention how long the closure would be but said it’s shifting the production to other plants for lessening the shutdown impact.
Foxconn Suspends Manufacturing
Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing giant, is temporarily closing down its Shenzhen-based production plant, following the orders from the Chinese government. Observing the rise of a new COVID-19 variant in Shenzhen, the Chinese government imposed a lockdown in the city last week. Since then, only the necessary businesses are run, and the rest of the public gatherings are prohibited. Aside from Foxconn, Shenzhen is also the home for other Chinese tech giants like Huawei Technologies Co., SZ DJI Technology Co., and Tencent Holdings Ltd., and it is one of China’s busiest ports. As a result, halting production in one of the core areas has pushed the share price of Foxconn 1% down on Monday. Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant is mainly responsible for assembling iPhones and is an essential partner of Apple. Therefore, this can significantly impact Apple’s supply of iPhones if the plant lockdown continues for an extended period. Although the Chinese government noted lockdown in Shenzhen until March 20th, Foxconn didn’t mention any show-up time yet. But until then, the company said it’s relocating the production to other plants to minimize the lockdown impact from the Shenzhen plant. Apple can hopefully bear a slow supply rate, as it just passed the heavy sale period coming after the holiday season every year. Similarly, most tech companies make huge sales in and around the holiday season. Similarly, Apple has just been revealed to save over $6.5 billion by not shipping the chargers and earphones with its iPhones.
