Foxconn looks to restart half of China production facilities by end of February

Foxconn's plants in China are being impacted by the new coronavirus.

Last updated 4 years ago

Apple partner Foxconn is reportedly working to return its China-based production capabilities to half strength by the end of February, a move that would bring vital supply lines back to life after being shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Citing people familiar with the company's plans, Reuters on Tuesday reports Foxconn intends to restore 50% of all Chinese operations to active status by the end of the month.

Company chairman Liu Young-Way aims to have 80% of Foxonn's production in China back online sometime in March, the report said.

Like other businesses across China, Foxconn's facilities remain closed or at low capacity in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that has so far killed more than 1,100 people and infected over 45,000 people around the world. The Chinese government attempted to halt the spread of the virus in January by extending the Lunar New Year holiday, a decision designed to reduce mass gatherings.

Foxconn initially said the coronavirus would not impact manufacturing and expected to reopen plants on Feb. 10, but the company has since shifted internal targets to a more conservative timeline.

Last week, the contract manufacturing giant informed employees not to return to its Shenzhen plant, a facility responsible for iPhone production. Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant, which handles a bulk of iPhone 11 and 11 Pro assembly, is also closed. The firm is reportedly moving some iPhone production to sites in India and Taiwan, though capacities at those plants are supposedly limited.

Another Apple supplier, Pegatron, also suffered setbacks in the region. One of the firm's two iPhone production facilities is reportedly in charge of churning out so-called "iPhone SE 2" devices and was slated to begin manufacturing on Feb. 10. While that date was pushed back, Apple is still rumored to launch the affordable handset in March.

Beyond production woes, Apple shut down all retail stores and offices in China due to the ongoing threat. It is unclear when the company will resume normal operations.

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5 Comments

sirozha 801 comments · 15 Years

About 4 years ago

Take this with a grain of salt. This Coronavirus is highly contagious. The official number of infected every day grew daily until just a few days ago. That is with about 80 cities, including now Beijing and Shanghai, in a complete shutdown.

In most of these cities, residents are banned from going outside under the threat of prison or even execution without a proper permit, which has to be applied for and approved for a certain day and time.

Even under such draconian quarantine measures, the daily number of infected and dead grew until just a couple days ago. Yesterday, it was the first day when the number of dead decreased by about 10% from the day before.

In Hong Kong, residents of a high rise living above the unit of an infected woman started getting infected. The authorities evacuated the units from each floor right above the unit of the infected woman. People in four of those units turned out to be infected. The authorities are now saying that the virus can spread via ventilation system.

There’s a cruise ship anchored in Japan with the number of infected now at 175. The infection spreads very quickly in closed quarters even though everyone is locked in their cabins and not allowed to venture outside.

What happens when hundreds of millions of Chinese return to their workplace? With the speed and ease that this virus moves from one person to another, it’s not hard to see that the number of infected and dead will accelerate beyond anything we have seen so far.

The Chinese leadership is facing a dilemma. Sacrifice about 5% of their population to save the economy or sacrifice the economy to save 5% of the population. There is no good way out of this problem.

sirozha 801 comments · 15 Years

About 4 years ago

So, I’ve been saying this all along. The official Chinese numbers of the infected and dead every day was simply underreported and complete BS.

BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT.

New cases today in Hubei: 14,840 (more than 10 times of new cases yesterday).

New deaths today: 242
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050354/coronavirus-hubei-province-reports-sharp-spike-new-confirmed

This is in the province where everyone is pretty much locked down in their apartments.

So, watch AAPL drop $50 per share tomorrow.

People. This time it’s for real.

Mike Wuerthele 6901 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

sirozha said:

So, I’ve been saying this all along. The official Chinese numbers of the infected and dead every day was simply underreported and complete BS.

BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT.
New cases today in Hubei: 14,840 (more than 10 times of new cases yesterday).

New deaths today: 242
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050354/coronavirus-hubei-province-reports-sharp-spike-new-confirmed

This is in the province where everyone is pretty much locked down in their apartments.

So, watch AAPL drop $50 per share tomorrow.

People. This time it’s for real.

The "new cases" include mostly backdated ones because of a widening of the definition to include those symptomatic, but not specifically tested, for the virus going back to January. This isn't a sudden escalation in the infection rate.

This redefinition happens frequently. It happens with the flu, it happened with SARS and MERS, and so forth.

sirozha 801 comments · 15 Years

About 4 years ago

Mike Wuerthele said:

sirozha said:

So, I’ve been saying this all along. The official Chinese numbers of the infected and dead every day was simply underreported and complete BS.

BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT.
New cases today in Hubei: 14,840 (more than 10 times of new cases yesterday).

New deaths today: 242
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050354/coronavirus-hubei-province-reports-sharp-spike-new-confirmed

This is in the province where everyone is pretty much locked down in their apartments.

So, watch AAPL drop $50 per share tomorrow.

People. This time it’s for real.

The "new cases" include mostly backdated ones because of a widening of the definition to include those symptomatic, but not specifically tested, for the virus going back to January. This isn't a sudden escalation in the infection rate.

This redefinition happens frequently. It happens with the flu, it happened with SARS and MERS, and so forth.

That is how China explained the sudden rise of 10-fold in new daily infections. I have back channels to China that suggest a gross underreporting by the Chinese government with the real numbers of sickened in the hundreds of thousands. The fact that many are turned back by the hospitals because of the lack of capacity and the shortage of testing kits doesn’t make these people not sick. Chinese heath system is overwhelmed and can not handle the number of newly sickened.

How do you explain a 3-fold rise in the newly dead compared to the day before? You can’t fake dead, but you can underreport the deaths because those who died were never deemed sickened by this virus due to the reasons outlined above.

Mike Wuerthele 6901 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

sirozha said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

sirozha said:

So, I’ve been saying this all along. The official Chinese numbers of the infected and dead every day was simply underreported and complete BS.

BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT.
New cases today in Hubei: 14,840 (more than 10 times of new cases yesterday).

New deaths today: 242
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050354/coronavirus-hubei-province-reports-sharp-spike-new-confirmed

This is in the province where everyone is pretty much locked down in their apartments.

So, watch AAPL drop $50 per share tomorrow.

People. This time it’s for real.

The "new cases" include mostly backdated ones because of a widening of the definition to include those symptomatic, but not specifically tested, for the virus going back to January. This isn't a sudden escalation in the infection rate.

This redefinition happens frequently. It happens with the flu, it happened with SARS and MERS, and so forth.

That is how China explained the sudden rise of 10-fold in new daily infections. I have back channels to China that suggest a gross underreporting by the Chinese government with the real numbers of sickened in the hundreds of thousands. The fact that many are turned back by the hospitals because of the lack of capacity and the shortage of testing kits doesn’t make these people not sick. Chinese heath system is overwhelmed and can not handle the number of newly sickened.
How do you explain a 3-fold rise in the newly dead compared to the day before? You can’t fake dead, but you can underreport the deaths because those who died were never deemed sickened by this virus due to the reasons outlined above.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this isn't serious. In regards to the deaths, the new definition can also include deaths from the "regular" flu that a doctor thinks might be from n-CoV, but were never tested positively for the virus, and the death tally from yesterday is also back-dated to January 1.

We also have back-channels out of China. There is a lack of capacity and the system is overburdened, but it is mostly because of the regular flu cycle and coronavirus on top of all that. It isn't just corona.

What I am saying, though, is that it isn't quite as doom and gloom as you've consistently been saying. It is wise to be cautious. It isn't good to be over-sensationalistic.

For example, your comment the other day about it spreading through the ventilation system. While it did travel through the ventilation system, it wasn't exhalations traveling. What really happened was a broken plumbing vent pipe, aerosolizing fecal matter from the infected person into others' apartments.