Apple Inc suppliers hit by China’s Covid curbs

On Monday, Apple Inc suppliers reduced their operations in China amid the tighter measures to stem a Covid-19 outbreak.

Shenzhen, known as the country’s Silicon Valley, currently carries out mass testing amid the surge of infections.

Subsequently, its southern tech hub reported 60 new local cases with confirmed symptoms.

It is the most significant figure that the city had since the country contained the first outbreak in early 2020.

The world’s largest economy reported 1,807 new local symptomatic Covid-19 cases on Sunday.

This record is the highest daily figure in two years and more than triple the caseload of the previous day.

In line with this, local authorities have suspended public transport. The government also urged people to work at home this week as much as possible.

In line with this, Apple Inc.’s major supplier Foxconn suspended its Shenzhen operations until further notice.

Consequently, the electronics industry company said it would deploy backup plants to reduce the disruption to production.

Remarkably, this decision will affect its Longhua and Guanlan factories in the country, Foxconn’s second-largest base.

The plants produce significant parts of iPhone and other Apple Inc products.

The campuses will remain closed until they have the green light from the local government. The city lockdown will continue until March 20.

Companies could operate if they could create a closed management system. This is where employees would live and work in a bubble, cut off from the wider public.

However, the firm’s Shenzhen plant operates with 450,000 employees.

Foxconn is the world’s most prominent contract manufacturer of electronics. It is also formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd.

Aside from Apple Inc, the business is an essential supplier of Samsung Electronics.

Apple Inc’s supplier Unimicron cuts output

At the same time, another Apple Inc supplier, Unimicron Technology, reduced its output in the country. Eventually, this could slow down iPhone shipments in the current quarter.

Moreover, the chip substrate and printed circuit board maker is also a supplier to Intel Corporation.
Similarly, Toyota Motor announced that its joint venture with China’s FAW Group suspended Changchun production.

Meanwhile, its Tianjin city operations remained unaffected. FAW also has a joint venture with Volkswagen.

Other Chinese tech giants, Huawei, Tencent, and Oppo, are also affected by the lockdown in Shenzhen.

Likewise, Shanghai, the most populous city in the country, enacted new restrictions to ease the surge of infections. The region is the home of significant chipmaker SMIC.