Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn expects its main iPhone plant in China to resume full production around late December to early January, following worker unrest last month that disrupted the factory.
"The situation has stabilized," a Foxconn source told Reuters, referring to the protests in Zhengzhou and the government's easing of COVID restrictions.
"The local government is actively helping with the resumption. The capacity is now being gradually resumed with new staff hiring under way. If the recruitment goes smoothly, it could take around three to four weeks to resume full production," the person said.
"At present, the overall epidemic situation has been brought under control with November being the most affected period," the company later said in a statement, adding it has started to recruit new employees and was gradually "restoring production capacity to normal."
The Zhengzhou plant, which employs about 200,000 people, was hit by stringent COVID-19 restrictions last month after an outbreak at the factory, which led the city of about 10 million people to be locked down. Riots soon broke out as workers protested over living standards and a failure to pay promised bonuses, which Foxconn put down to a "technical error" when hiring new recruits.
The Zhengzhou plant is Foxconn's biggest iPhone factory with around 200,000 workers. Foxconn is responsible for assembling around 70% of the iPhones that Apple sells, but it has been struggling to keep employees on site due to the lockdowns, with some reports suggesting output could fall by as much as 30%. Foxconn on Monday reported sales for November were actually down 11.4% from the prior year and said it expects the fourth quarter to be "roughly in line with market consensus."
iPhone 14 Pro models currently face at least a four-week shipping delay on Apple's online store in the U.S. as the company struggles to maintain supply.
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