Amid fears of iPhone production falling due to the tightening Covid-19 restrictions in China, the country has ordered a seven-day lockdown of the area around Foxconn Technology Group’s main plant in Zhengzhou, which is also the largest iPhone supplier, the media has reported. The move will severely curtail shipments in and out of the Foxconn factory. The lockdown will last until November 9, the local government said in a statement posted to its WeChat account, says a report by news agency Bloomberg.
The abrupt action reflects Beijing’s Covid Zero approach to stamping out outbreaks and is likely to further disrupt Foxconn’s main operations base. Taiwanese company Foxconn, whose main listed arm is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is grappling with Covid-induced restrictions that forced some of its workers into quarantine and pushed several others to flee the plant, the report added.
A report by Reuters said last week that China's Zhengzhou iPhone manufacturing site's November output may decline by 30 per cent as it is witnessing strict curbs in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. However, to compensate, Apple's contract supplier Foxconn is working to increase production at another facility in Shenzhen city, the Reuters report added.
Videos on Chinese social media sites surfaced last week that showed Foxconn workers fleeing the largest iPhone plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou, amid a lockdown triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus.
Photographs and videos are being circulated on Chinese social media sites that show how Foxconn's migrant workers are returning home, trekking across fields during the day and along roads at night.
A migrant worker was quoted as saying by Financial Times that they jumped a plastic and metal fence to escape the campus. They said that the area surrounding the plant had been "locked down for days" and those who tested positive for Coronavirus are being tested daily to check the transmission.