The Chinese authorities have imposed a lockdown in the area around the largest iPhone factory in the world. This has to do with an outbreak of corona cases.
It concerns the factory of the Taiwanese concern Foxconn in the city of Zhengzhou. The area around the site in eastern China, which also houses the international airport, is now under a seven-day lockdown, allowing only vehicles with essential goods to enter or leave the zone.
As a result, no iPhones from the American technology giant Apple can be shipped from the factory. In addition, the measures make it more difficult to recruit new staff and to supply production parts.
Foxconn is dealing with a surge in corona cases at its important factory in Zhengzhou. As a result, several of the 200,000 or so workers had to be quarantined while others were displaced. Zhengzhou reported on Tuesday that the number of corona cases in one day had risen from 95 to 359. However, the Chinese authorities are still sticking to a strict corona policy.
Foxconn and Apple have not yet responded to the lockdown. Earlier, the Taiwanese company had already tried to mitigate possible disruptions in the factory by, among other things, raising wages and providing backup production in other locations.
Apple launched its iPhone 14 series in September. The Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou accounts for more than eighty percent of the production of the new smartphones.