Reuters reports that Apple's main iPhone assembler Foxconn aims to reopen half of its manufacturing facilities in China by the end of February. The move would allow production lines to be phased back into action following the extensive lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
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Taiwan's Foxconn hopes to resume half of its production in China by month-end, a source told Reuters on Wednesday, as the supplier to tech giant Apple and others reopens plants shut over a coronavirus outbreak.
The world's largest contract electronics maker also aims to resume 80 percent of production in China in March, added the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, citing internal targets set by Chairman Liu Young-Way.
Foxconn was originally planning to reopen its factories on February 10 to begin production on Apple devices after the Lunar New Year holiday, but the company's plans were put on hold due to the ongoing viral outbreak while facility inspections were performed. Local governments are concerned the virus will spread quickly in a labor-intensive working environment.
Foxconn this week got the go-ahead to reopen some major plants in China, and its plant in the eastern city of Kunshan was also approved on Tuesday to resume production. However, only around one tenth of the workforce had returned to two key plants in southern Shenzhen and central Zhengzhou as of Monday, a source told Reuters.
Apple has also extended the shutdown of its own retail stores in China. Stores were supposed to open on Monday, but Apple has decided to wait until February 15.
Apple typically sources components from multiple suppliers, mainly to diversify local production risks, and Apple is mulling shifting more assembly orders for its new models slated for launch in the first half of 2020 to factories in Taiwan, according to DigiTimes.
Top Rated Comments
Human lives are at stake here. Opening those factories will endanger them. Nevertheless, most people write and talk about the effects on economy and their newest shiny gadgets - all from ‘save’ distance; all without empathy; all without realizing they could be next.
Aims to
neither of these mean they actually will reopen.
Trying to keep Wall Street calm with words isn't a disregard for life that all these other posts seem to think.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-xi-economy/xi-warned-officials-that-efforts-to-stop-virus-could-hurt-economy-sources-idUSKBN2050JL
It’s awfully easy to be an armchair world leader when the lives and wellbeing of millions isn’t at stake. If people can’t afford food or rent or — yes even medical care — because the factories have been closed too long, then there’s a cost in human life there too. Decisions can’t be made in a vacuum.