Apple supplier Foxconn maintains Covid-19 production measures in world’s largest iPhone factory to meet surge in holiday orders

The world’s largest iPhone factory, operated by Foxconn Technology Group in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, has kept up its “closed-loop” production system that restricts movement of employees since mid-October, as Apple’s prime supplier remains under pressure to meet surging demand during the holiday season.

Foxconn’s integrated Digital Product Business Group, the division responsible for iPhone assembly, described this status quo over the weekend in an open letter, which implored workers at the manufacturing complex to “have more understanding and support” for the closed-loop policy amid the company’s efforts to “successfully complete orders”.

The Taiwanese contract manufacturer, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, reassured workers that infections from Covid-19’s Omicron variant at the facility “are mostly mild or asymptomatic”, adding that “there will be no after-effects”, the open letter said.

That appeal comes after most parts of Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province, lifted pandemic controls last week, as the central government signalled a shift in its zero-Covid-19 policy. Many Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, no longer demand regular polymerase chain reaction testing.