Production of the Apple iPhone 12 at a Foxconn manufacturing unit in India has slumped by greater than 50 % as a result of staff contaminated with COVID-19 have needed to go away their posts, two sources advised Reuters. The Foxconn facility in Tamil Nadu produces iPhones particularly for India, the world’s No. 2 smartphone market. Tamil Nadu is among the worst hit states within the second coronavirus wave engulfing India. Officials imposed a full lockdown within the state from Monday, closing public transport and shuttering retailers, to attempt gradual surging infections.
More than 100 Foxconn workers within the state have examined optimistic for COVID-19 and the corporate has enforced a no-entry ban at its manufacturing unit in Chennai till late May, one of many sources stated. “Employees are solely allowed to depart however to not enter the ability since yesterday,” the person said. “Only a small part of output is being kept.”
More than 50 % of the plant’s capability had been reduce, each sources stated, declining to be named as they weren’t authorised to talk to the media. They didn’t specify the plant’s capability and it was unclear what number of staff have been at the ability, which offers dormitory lodging for workers.
Taipei-based Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a serious provider to Apple, stated a small variety of workers at one in every of its services in India examined optimistic for COVID-19 and the corporate was offering them with assist, together with medical help.
“Foxconn locations the well being and security of our workers as our highest precedence and that’s the reason we have now been working carefully with native authorities and public well being authorities in India to deal with the challenges that we and all corporations are dealing with in coping with the COVID-19 disaster,” it said in a statement to Reuters.
Foxconn declined to comment on factory output or specific staffing levels. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. India has benefited from Apple’s move to shift some areas of production from China to other markets as it navigates a trade war between Washington and Beijing, with Apple announcing in March it had started the assembly of the iPhone 12 in India. While Apple’s share of the budget phone-dominated India market is small, CEO Tim Cook said in January that India business doubled in the December quarter compared to the previous year, helped by an online store launch. Foxconn similarly said strong smartphone sales contributed to a stronger-than-expected performance in the fourth quarter amid the work-from-home trend.
Market research firm Canalys said that growth in India extended through the first quarter, with Apple shipping more than a million iPhones. Demand for the COVID-19 Crisis
However, the outlook has been dimmed by the coronavirus crisis engulfing India, where COVID-19 cases and deaths have surged at a record pace in recent weeks. The country has recorded around 22.66 million infections and more than 246,000 deaths, with experts saying the true figures could be far higher. Foxconn is not the only producer affected. Nokia and Chinese smartphone maker Oppo last year suspended production at factories in India after workers tested positive for COVID-19.
Taipei-based tech research firm TrendForce on Monday trimmed its global smartphone production growth forecast to 8.5 percent from 9.4 percent, citing the coronavirus impact in India on major vendors including Samsung and Apple. Smartphone brands are therefore expected to closely monitor their inventories of whole devices and adjust their subsequent production plans accordingly,” TrendForce stated in a report, including it might revise the forecast decrease nonetheless if the outbreak continues to hit native manufacturing and gross sales within the second quarter.
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