Apple's key manufacturing partner Foxconn's Chairman Liu Young-way is slated to visit Covid-19 hit iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou province of China, the media has reported. This will be Liu's first visit to the world's largest iPhone manufacturing facility in his role as chairman, and his main goals are to review conditions after the resumption of production and to extensively exchange views, news agency Reuters reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The Foxconn chairman is likely to meet with senior government officials including Lou Yangsheng, the Communist Party chief of Henan province where the company's Zhengzhou facility is located, the report added.
This development comes amid reports of Foxconn securing a new site in Vietnam, amid the Taiwanese giant's attempt to shift production away from China after facing major supply-chain disruptions late last year due to the country's zero-Covid policy.
To recall, Foxconn Technology Group appointed a new chief for its iPhone assembly business in China in January, a previous report by news agency Bloomberg said. According to the report, Michael Chiang was first identified in his new role at Taiwan-based Foxconn’s annual year-end party, succeeding long-time leader Wang Charng-yang as head of the division responsible for iPhone assembly.
Foxconn's biggest iPhone manufacturing facility in China, hit hard by Covid-related disruptions, gradually recovered and production reached about 90 per cent of maximum capacity in early January.
Foxconn Technology Group's facility in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is the world's largest iPhone factory, which saw major disruptions in the last three months of 2022 caused by the pandemic controls.
Meanwhile, Apple's bid to shift production from China to India has been hit by challenges, a report by the Financial Times said recently. Apple currently locally assembles the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus in India. Apple's move of moving production away from China after the country's strict Covid-related restrictions dented supply chains across industries and as trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington escalated.