According to South China Morning Post, the production activities of Foxconn are not affected by the latest wave of Covid-19 hitting Henan Province. The 300,000 workers of this Taiwanese subcontractor continue to produce half of the world’s iPhones.
Foxconn’s 300,000 workers face mandatory testing in Zhengzhou
Unlike previous waves of Covid-19, this time Foxconn’s production schedule will not does not seem to be impacted by Covid-19. In April 2020, Apple was forced to announce a month-long delay in the production of the next iPhone. More recently, the production of the iPhone has suffered from another phenomenon: the shortage of semiconductors. For several days, Chinese assembly lines were halted due to lack of components. Apple’s worst nightmare…
Despite the crackdown, a record level of investment for Tech in China
At the time of the first wave, Foxconn had to restart its activity at a partial pace. Apple’s supplier had also stopped hiring new employees. This time, a recent report shows that the pandemic “did not affect Foxconn’s production capacity”. The largest iPhone factory in the world has adapted to the situation to avoid having to relive the same adventures as in 2020.
All of the Taiwanese company’s workers present in the city of Zhengzhou, have undergone regular testing to detect the possible presence of Covid-19. Foxconn imposes mandatory testing on its employees. Those who refuse to be tested are denied access to several production areas. The Taiwanese giant has set up a hundred spaces to test workers.
Several major Chinese cities again confined
With nearly 300,000 workers, factories in Zhengzhou are of paramount importance for Foxconn and for Apple. Henan Province became the first province in mainland China to combat Omicron and Delta variants simultaneously. On January 11, 65 new cases of Covid-19 were detected in Anyang, the northernmost city of Henan. On the same day, about 5 million residents of the city were forced into further confinement. They can no longer leave their homes unless they have to be tested.
A few hundred kilometers away, the huge city of Xi’an is also confined. A confinement of 13 million inhabitants which worries because it threatens the world production of RAM and flash memory. Xi’an is the “capital of the world” production of memory modules. This new containment could have a significant impact on the production of RAM and flash storage memory, because Samsung and Micron produce a large part of their modules there.