Wesley Hilliard
Protests over Covid restrictions at Foxconn plants and the slow resumption of builds could result in six million fewer iPhone 14 Pro units made in 2022.
The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are Apple's most demanded models, and the company is struggling to keep them on the shelves. Protests over Covid restrictions have compounded the issue as production continues to see severe impacts.
According to a report from Bloomberg, an insider familiar with the Foxconn plant says there could be close to 6 million fewer iPhone units than expected. This number could improve as the situation changes in Zhengzhou, and depends mostly on how quickly Foxconn can restore normal operations.
The situation stems from severe Covid restrictions in China requiring workers to be isolated in Foxconn barracks. A Covid outbreak in late October pushed employees over the edge, leading to mass walkouts and protests.
Foxconn has attempted to keep the situation under control by offering severance packages to disgruntled employees and hiring new staff en-mass. The company required at least 100,000 more employees to get production back on track, and was hiring so quickly that quarantine space ran out.
After the riots and numerous other complaints, Apple sent staff to the plant to aid in getting things on track. It isn't clear if Apple's presence will aid in getting production back on schedule as the Covid lockdowns continue.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
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3 Comments
Wowzers. One way or another, it looks like Zero Covid is about to break. Maybe that means the government drops the policy (unlikely), but the downside there is a massive COVID wave with millions of deaths. Another possibility is that the government cracks down extra hard to continue enforcing Zero Covid, but then production will continue to be crippled.
Their best bet might be to buy up as many Pfizer or Moderna Omicron doses as they can, jab as many high-risk folks as possible, continue enforcing masking, but otherwise drop Zero Covid (in other words, adopt a sensible European or Blue American policy regime). That wouldn't be very 'on brand' for Xi, though. So most likely, we'll get violent suppression combined with crippled production. Maybe a 5% chance of revolution.