Tim Cook at FoxconnSource: Apple

What you need to know

  • Apple iPhone manufacturer Foxconn has re-opened its Zhengzhou factory.
  • But only 10% of the workforce was able to make it into work.
  • This following the closure of the plant due to coronavirus.

Apple partner Foxconn has been able to re-open its Zhengzhou factory after receiving the go-ahead from Chinese authorities. That's the good news. The bad news is that just 10% of the factory's workforce turned up.

According to a new Reuters report, the Zhengzhou factory is now once again available for work, but the factory in Shenzhen remains closed.

Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, got the green light to restart production in the eastern central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, said the person with direct knowledge of the matter. The company, however, has not yet been allowed to restart production in Shenzhen, a southern manufacturing hub, the source said.

Those two factories are the main players in Apple's iPhone production machine with their closure – and the knock-on impacts that will cause throughout the supply chain – likely to result in lower global iPhone shipments than had previously been forecast.

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While the Zhengzhou plant struggles to get people into work, company officials are said to be working to get other plants online as soon as possible.

About 16,000 people, or under 10% of Foxconn's workforce in Zhengzhou have returned to the plant, the source said, adding that company executives were trying very hard to negotiate with authorities to resume production in other parts of China, including Kunshan, in southeastern Jiangsu province.

About 16,000 people, or under 10% of Foxconn's workforce in Zhengzhou have returned to the plant, the source said, adding that company executives were trying very hard to negotiate with authorities to resume production in other parts of China, including Kunshan, in southeastern Jiangsu province.

Even with factories open, workers may still simply be unable to reach them because of ongoing transport restrictions that have been put into place in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus. That could well be the issue Foxconn is currently facing in Zhengzhou and it may be one that is difficult to overcome.