Foxconn’s iPhone plant in China’s Zhengzhou city which was facing severe problems due to covid, is back to almost full production with its December shipments reaching upto 90% of initial plans, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Foxconn’s plant in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou is now operating with roughly 200,000 staff, reported by the official Henan Daily, citing Foxconn executive Vic Wang. The plant as on 30th December was shipping at 90% of the peak capacity.
Production at the world’s largest manufacturing facility of Apple Inc’s iPhones was badly affected late last year after a COVID-19 outbreak took place and the measures taken to control the virus prompted thousands of workers to leave. It was also hit by a bout of worker unrest over payment issues.
Foxconn is now offering bonuses to attract new employees and to make the already working staff stay there as the company is aiming to resume full production between late December to early January, a company source told Reuters.
One person reported that the plant is back on its full production mode but the company officials are still being cautious due to the spike in cases of COVID-19 in China.
“We expect a peak for cases before or after the Lunar New Year holiday,” the person said, referring to the week-long break that starts on Jan 21. “We don’t know if that will cause any issues.”
In the past few months, as the production was under restrictions due to COVID-19, the supply of iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro was critically affected. During the peak of disruption, Apple put on a press release in November saying iPhone 14 Pro production was operating at “reduced capacity”.
Supply of the iPhone 14 Pro has now started to improve.
