Disruptions at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory caused by Beijing’s strict zero-coronavirus regime have prompted Apple to lower its high-end iPhone 14 shipment estimates this month, giving investors a warning ahead of the peak holiday season.
Now, the local government in Henan province, where the factory is located, is trying to replenish the iPhone production line, and Chinese officials are helping his Foxconn to continue production.
Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory typically employs more than 200,000 people and accounted for about 60% of Henan’s exports in 2019.
“In about a week we have dispatched more than 300 workers,” said a labor official named Han from Thanyin province, 200 kilometers north of the factory. Mr. Han said Thanyin local government quarantined workers in hotels for three days and then took them directly to Foxconn factories where they quarantined for another three days before starting work.
Workers fled a Foxconn factory late last month during the Covid outbreak. They said the factory was in chaos as Foxconn tried to use harsh tactics to root out the Covid incident while maintaining production. I escaped from the factory on foot.
Apple partners have since raised wages, added bonuses of up to 7,600 yuan ($1,000), and split the factory into two separate bubbles, which he says will split the workforce and try to keep Covid cases down. increase. The Henan provincial government has ordered officials across the province to hire new assembly line workers.
“People are definitely nervous,” said an official in Yichuan county, west of the factory, which bussed the first batch of 80 workers to Foxconn on Thursday. is trying to make sure Covid is under control there, otherwise we may have to figure out a way to bring our employees back if things get worse.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley on Monday lowered their fourth-quarter iPhone shipment forecast by 6 million units to 79 million units, saying it was “important to restart iPhone supply at [the Zhengzhou factory].”
A village official in Baofeng District, south of the factory, said he was tasked with recruiting at least seven workers from the village and sending them to the factory.